Until You're In My Arms Again - Optimistique (2024)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Hunter paced a straight line from one end of Rex’s renegade clone camp to the other. The grass was worn down from his frequent footsteps. The moons shone through the leaves of the big trees overhead, giving his sensitive eyes plenty of light to see by. Everyone was asleep inside the big tent they’d set up between the trees except for Howzer and Nemec, who were both on watch and slowly patrolled the surrounding forest. Hunter could hear their footfalls crunching on foliage, but he never saw them. They gave him a wide berth.

It had been two weeks since Omega was taken by Hemlock, and they were no closer to finding her than when they started. Fourteen standard days had passed with no one to tuck her in and tell her “I love you” every night. Fourteen days in which she might not be adequately fed. Fourteen days in which any number of terrible things might have happened to her. Fourteen days for Hunter to conjure up plenty of vivid images of said terrible things.

Fourteen days since Tech died.

Hunter mentally slapped another bandage on that bleeding wound. There was no use thinking about things he couldn’t change. He needed to focus on things he could.

Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo had immediately connected with Rex’s current hideout on Tenoo following their escape from Ord Mantell. The captain’s Imperial contacts had nothing new to share about the location of the Advanced Science Division, but Rex promised to dig deeper. In the last two weeks, Hunter and his brothers had been sent to multiple locations to pick up data sticks left by these mysterious contacts in innocuous places, but none of it had yielded results. The only information anyone could find about Hemlock was fragments of his old Republic files. Nothing about his current research under the Empire or where he was now. The closest they came was investigating an outpost where Hemlock had apparently taken refuge after being booted from the Republic Science Corps, but it was long since abandoned.

Since then, they’d been stuck here waiting for any news, any lead. They weren’t doing anything.

Heavy footsteps approached from the tent. Hunter didn’t need to look up to see who it was. The cybernetics hummed softly against his senses.

“Shouldn’t you be getting some sleep?” Echo said.

Hunter passed by him on his circuit, reached the end, and then came back. “What good would that do?”

“You’re no good to anyone if you’re too exhausted to fight.”

“Go back to bed, Echo.”

The ARC trooper watched him pace for another few seconds. “You’re not helping Omega by walking around at all hours of the night instead of sleeping.”

Hunter stopped and leveled him with a glare. “Whether I lie on a cot wide awake or come out here and count every blade of grass on this Force-forsaken planet, it won’t help Omega. Nothing we’ve done has helped Omega.”

“We’re doing everything we can. We can’t act without intel.”

Hunter resumed his walk. “That’s not good enough.”

“Our contacts are still trying to learn more. Even Senator Chuchi is exhausting her resources to see what she can find out. We just have to be patient.”

Hunter shook his head. “No. No, there’s no time for patience. We need to try a new tactic. If Imperial sources can’t provide what we need, we need to look outside the Empire. The Bounty Hunter’s Guild. The hutts. Anyone good at finding things out no matter the cost.”

“And you would trust information that came from a bounty hunter or a hutt?”

“It’s better than sitting around on our shebs all day.”

“We’re not. We’re trying to find her, Hunter.”

Hunter came up short just in front of him. “How can you be so calm about it? We have no idea why Hemlock wanted Omega. Don’t you realize the kinds of things they could be doing to her?”

Echo’s eyes flashed in the moonlight. “Of course I do! The Techno Union cut me up and used me as a human experiment for over a year. You don’t think it’s crossed my mind what the Empire might be capable of doing to my niece?”

Hunter’s eyes fell to the scomp Echo had instead of a hand. He felt cold all over. He rubbed his eyes with a fist, trying to banish the images of his daughter’s limbs being amputated.

Echo sighed. “Sorry. I know that didn’t help. Just come get some rest. You can’t keep burning the candle at both ends. We need you cognizant.”

Hunter spun on his heel. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He didn’t go to the tent. He went the opposite way to the thin forest path that led to the clearing where the Marauder was docked. Echo didn’t say anything to stop him.

Hunter passed Howzer and Nemec on their patrol. They nodded to him. He kept going. It was getting harder to get air into his lungs with each step. He picked up his pace. He was both running and hyperventilating by the time he reached the ship. He punched in the code to lower the ramp with shaking fingers and stumbled up the steps.

As soon as he was inside, he collapsed at the console. He didn’t quite make it to the chair. He sat on the floor with this back to the wall. The gunner’s mount was just above him to the left. Though his heart was pounding and his lungs burning, he forced himself to breathe in through his nose. Quickly at first, but slower with each inhale. He closed his eyes to sift through the scents he took in. He zeroed in on two. Two signature scents. Fading, but not fully gone from the ship yet.

Tech’s and Omega’s.

Omega’s scent was strongest in the gunner’s mount. It permeated her mat, her blanket, and Lula. Things he hadn’t touched since she’d been taken. The co*ckpit, on the other hand, smelled the most like Tech. The pilot’s chair especially, but also his toolbox of mechanical odds and ends.

One of those scents would be replenished when they recovered the owner. The other was never coming back.

Hunter dropped his head onto his knees. He couldn’t dwell on it. If he did, he’d fall apart, and Omega would need him to be whole when they got her back. That was all that mattered anymore. He needed to focus on finding her. He needed to figure out how to get information out of those bounty hunters or hutts or…

Or pirates. Hunter raised his head. Phee. Why hadn’t he thought of her before? She had contacts, connections. She knew how to get things. How to find things out. He pushed himself to his feet and made it halfway to the ship’s comm system before he stopped in his tracks.

He would have to tell her about Tech. Maybe that’s why his subconscious had shoved her to the back of his mind. He hadn’t even considered going back to Pabu after Ord Mantell. It felt utterly wrong to return to the place where they’d all been so happy without everyone in tow. If he had to face Shep or Lyana or Phee, he would have to tell them what happened. And he couldn’t relive it. It already played over and over in his head—all the ways things went wrong, every bad choice he made, the look on Omega’s face when she woke up and found Tech gone. The sound of her heart stopping. Watching her drop when Hemlock’s commando stunned her from behind. He couldn’t put all that into words. He wasn’t sure he was physically able to.

But Phee could be their only hope. She could get access to things that Imperials might not be able to. He had to call her. He took one more step toward the co*ckpit. He stood there for long seconds as Tech’s scent wrapped around him. He swallowed.

Hunter backpedaled. He shouldn’t do this alone. Wrecker and Echo should be there too. They might know how to say it better, might think of different questions to ask. They might know how to pick up the threads if he froze up.

He hurried out of the ship, jogging back to camp. Echo was probably still awake. Wrecker wouldn’t mind being woken up for this. It couldn’t wait until morning.

* * * * *

Crosshair. Crosshair!

Crosshair heard the voice, but he was hovering somewhere just beneath the surface of consciousness and could not respond. Besides, he must be dreaming. That voice could not belong to who he thought it did. It must be that female doctor who had the same accent. His weary mind was just distorting it to sound younger. It could not actually be the kid who might be his biological daughter because he had risked his life to get a message to his old squad and warn them to hide her away. They must have gotten it. Tech would have found it, if nothing else. And while Crosshair didn’t trust Hunter with a lot of things, he knew how much he loved that kid. It was clear as day back on Kamino. From the way he spoke to her or about her, from the way he cradled her after pulling her from the water, from the way he held her instead of letting her walk on the platform—it was obvious he would rather die than let her be brought to a place like this. This hell that passing Stormtroopers called “Tantiss.”

Crosshair drifted in and out of awareness, but the next time he truly came awake, he was back in his tiny cell. The last thing he remembered before that, he had been in a larger cell with an interrogation droid. He wasn’t sure why he was still alive. Hemlock must have realized that Crosshair wasn’t going to give up the location of his former squad no matter what painful drugs they pumped into him. He rolled over on the flat rack beneath him with a groan. It was even harder than the fold-down bunks on the Marauder. His whole body hurt. A dull, liquid fire oozed slowly through his veins.

He closed his eyes. Time must have passed by the time he opened them again because his daily tray of food had been shoved through the thin slot near the floor. Crosshair was surprised, the first time they brought him here, that the holding cells didn’t have ray shields. The door was made from metal grating in hexagonal shapes large enough to stick a hand through. He guessed Hemlock was confident enough that none of his clone prisoners would try to swipe a guard’s weapon when they walked by. He kept the clones too weak to try it anyway. The food tray consisted of a single bowl of tasteless beige goop and one pouch of water. It was all any of them got to sustain them for twenty-four hours.

Crosshair slowly pushed himself upright, wincing against his screaming muscles. He didn’t stand.He scooted to the edge of his rack and let himself sink onto his knees on the floor. He took the spoon from the tray and dipped it into the goop. He had already lost count of the number of days he had been here, but his stomach had finally stopped rebelling against the poor excuse for food. He kept his eyes down as he ate, ignoring the pained groans of clones in the cells around him and the distant footsteps of stormtroopers patrolling down the hall.

That must have been why he didn’t see her at first. It wasn’t until she was right in front of him, crouching just on the other side of his cell door, that he froze when she whispered, “Crosshair!”

His spoon paused in its trajectory to his mouth. It couldn’t be possible. It couldn’t be true. Not after all he’d endured to make sure she was never found. He gradually lifted his eyes.

There she was. She was a little bigger than when he’d last seen her. Less baby fat filled out her face, but she was still just a child with brown eyes full of hope and short blonde hair that ruffled when she moved her head.

“I don’t have much time,” she said softly, “but I had to come make sure you were okay.”

Crosshair’s spoon clattered on the tray when he dropped it. He sat back against the rack, his head going light. He lowered it into his hands.

Why? How? He’d entrusted her to Hunter. Even after learning who she was, there had been no question in his mind where she belonged. If he did end out being her father, what kind of life could he give her? Hunter was already raising her. Crosshair gave him his blessing. She would have four highly-trained soldiers to keep her safe. She should have been safe. Not here. Never here.

“What are you doing here?” he croaked without raising his head. It was the first time he’d spoken in days.

“They let me go between labs without an escort. I found out where your cell was and slipped away. It will be a few minutes before Emerie misses me.”

Crosshair growled and looked up with a frown. “What are you doing here? On Tantiss?”

Her little hands closed around the metal grate. “We got your message. We were trying to find you.”

“The message was supposed to be a warning. You were supposed to stay away.”

“We found your CT number on an Imperial prisoner transfer list. We weren’t going to leave you!”

Why not? It wouldn’t be the first time, Crosshair almost said. Instead, he couldn’t help but notice that she kept saying “we” but was conspicuously alone. “Did you all get yourselves captured? Are the idiots here too?”

Omega bit her lower lip. She looked away from a moment, swallowing, and sense of dread settled in Crosshair’s stomach.

“Kid,” he said, putting his palms flat against the cold floor, “where are they?”

“I…” she swallowed again. “That doctor found us on Ord Mantell because someone we trusted betrayed us. He was leading Hunter and Wrecker away somewhere when I got stunned. I don’t know what happened to them after that. I’ve tried to look at the prisoner list, but I haven’t found their CT numbers. If they’re here, I don’t know where they’re being kept.”

Crosshair ground his teeth, wishing he had a toothpick to chew on. If Hemlock had the others, he would only keep them alive if it was somehow profitable to him. So they were either here somewhere being tortured… Or they were dead.

“But Echo wasn’t with them!” Omega said quickly. “I sent AZI to find him. I’m sure he came and helped them get away.”

She was naïve. Hunter wouldn’t have let Hemlock take Omega while he walked away free and still breathing. Wrecker wouldn’t either, for that matter. Crosshair knew Hunter had made a lot of bad choices since the war ended, but he never expected him to fail so utterly. He couldn’t begin to process the swirl of complicated emotions that warred inside him at the knowledge that two of his once-brothers might be dead.

Two. There was one she hadn’t mentioned yet. “And Tech?”

To his horror, she blinked against a sudden rush of tears. She pulled in a shaky breath. “Tech…” She stopped and leaned her forehead against the grate.

Crosshair’s heart pounded. “Where is he?”

“W-we… We tried to find you. We tracked the doctor to a planet with tall mountains. But someone else got there first and tried to blow up the base before we could track his ship. We got stuck on a really high railcar. The car attached to ours got damaged and was going to pull us down. Tech had gone outside to restore the power and got caught. Wrecker couldn’t get him up. T-Tech said ‘Plan 99.’ He shot the connecting hinge. We got away, but he and the car both fell.” She let out a tiny sob. “He fell…”

The room spun around Crosshair. It was one thing to speculate about Hunter and Wrecker’s fates, but this one she knew for sure. She had seen it herself. Plan 99. The sacrifice play. Because they were looking for Crosshair.

Tech was dead because he had been trying to find him.

”Hey!” a stormtrooper shouted from down the hall. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Omega glanced over her shoulder. She snaked one skinny arm in through the grate and squeezed Crosshair’s knee. “I’ll come back. I promise.” She picked up a pail from the floor beside her and hurried away.

Crosshair remained on the floor, his food forgotten. He was already weak from the drugs and limited rations, but his stomach lurched at the thought of putting anything in it. He leaned his head heavily back onto the rack behind him. He let his cell spin. If he closed his eyes and lost himself in the light-headedness, maybe he could pretend he was hallucinating. Maybe when he opened his eyes again the kid that might be his wouldn’t be held captive here and the men he used to call brothers wouldn’t most likely all be dead. Maybe he would go numb. Maybe he would sink back into the darkness and not wake up this time.

* * * * *

“It’s about time. I was expecting an update from you boys a long time ago. I’m assuming you ran into some snags on your super secret mission. Want to get me up to speed?”

Phee’s full-body holo beamed out of the Marauder ’s transmitter in the co*ckpit. She had her arms crossed and a pinched, frustrated look on her face. “And tell Tech that if he doesn’t want to talk to me anymore, he might at least say it to my face,” she added before Hunter, Wrecker, or Echo could say anything. “He’s been ignoring my messages for two weeks and I see he’s not on the call.”

Hunter clenched his hands on his knees. “Phee. There was—on the mission… Tech didn’t—”

He had managed to break the news to Omega back on Ord Mantell, but it was like all of his courage to do so had disappeared with her. The words wouldn’t form on his tongue.

Wrecker was no help either. He only watched Hunter struggle, his eyes shining in the light of the holo. Echo took a step forward. He stood in between the chairs where his brothers were seated.

“Tech sacrificed himself so that we could get away,” he said. “He’s…gone.”

Hunter admired that Echo was able to say it without his voice breaking. But he could see the tightness around his eyes.

Phee dropped her arms. “Gone,” she repeated. She seemed to consider each of their faces. Her eyebrows pulled together. “Just a minute.”

She moved away, leaving the range of her holo receptor. She might have gone into another room. Hunter’s sensitive ears picked up a gasp he didn’t think he was supposed to hear. She did not disconnect the transmission, but a full two minutes passed before she came back into view. She held herself rigidly. It was hard to tell over the blue holo image if her eyes were red, but Hunter thought they might be. “How?”

Echo drew in a breath and let it out slowly. He concisely explained the failed mission to Eriadu and the ultimate disaster with the railcars. “He made the decision for us and shot the connecting hinge so that we could escape.”

“Of course he did,” Phee said softly. “Too brave for his own good.” She stayed quiet for a moment, her eyes trained on the floor. Then she asked, “And what about Omega? I don’t see her with you either.”

“Taken,” Wrecker growled. “By the Empire.”

“Cid sold us out,” Echo elaborated. “We went back to Ord Mantell because Omega was injured and we needed AZI-3. An Imperial geneticist named Royce Hemlock and his soldiers ambushed us and took her. We don’t know why he wants her and we don’t know where he is. That’s where we hope you can help. Have you ever heard of the Advanced Science Division? We think he took her to its headquarters.”

A dangerous frown fell over Phee’s face as she listened. “Not off hand, but I have some people I can reach out to.”

“We have to find Hemlock’s lab,” Hunter said. “If you can find anything, anything at all, even if it’s just the name of someone who might know—”

“Then I’ll tell you immediately. I know how much she means to you, Hunter. I’m going to help bring her home in any way I can.”

“Thank you,” Echo nodded.

“I’ll do some digging and get back to you.” She paused and then said more quietly, “And I’ll update Shep. Lyana’s been asking about her friend. Oh. And I’m going to have a word with Cid.”

The transmission cut off and her image faded. Hunter leaned back in his chair. He shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up that Phee would be able to offer more up front. They already knew the Empire had covered its tracks remarkably well in regards to the ASD. Of course she’d never heard of it. Almost no one had.

“What do we do now?” Wrecker asked.

“All we can do is wait,” Echo said. He gave Hunter’s shoulder a squeeze. “I’ll go check if anything’s come through from our other contacts.” His clanging footsteps quieted after he left the ramp and reached the grass outside.

Hunter drummed his fingers on his knee. Waiting. Patience. Things he thought he was good at back when he was sergeant to three rowdy brothers and consequences seemed like more of an abstract concept than a concrete thing. Then he lost his daughter. Now his body refused to be still. He needed to be acting, not waiting. Every moment he sat here was a moment Omega might be picked apart under a scalpel, or suspended in a tube, or pumped full of experimental drugs, or hurt just to test her pain levels, or—

Wrecker’s stomach growled. Hunter shook his head and welcomed the distraction. That, at least, was something he could fix. Rex’s camp had provisions, but they weren’t unlimited. Hunter was sure acquiring the supplies to run this little operation was no easy task. He pulled open their drawer of rations. They still had a pile of protein bars plus a few dried goods he’d picked up on Pabu and stored on the ship just in case. As he dug through their stash, he noticed a flash of green on one of the wrappers. It was a meiloorun-flavored bar. Omega’s favorite. It was the only one left. He pushed it to the bottom of the pile, vowing to save that one for when she got back.

He grabbed a plain one and tossed it to Wrecker. For the first time that Hunter could remember, Wrecker did not immediately tear into it. Instead, he stared at it and then frowned at Hunter. “You eat one too.”

Hunter closed the drawer. “I’m not hungry.”

“But you didn’t eat today.”

Hunter didn’t think he had noticed. How was he supposed to do normal things like eat and sleep when Omega was alone and suffering on some distant planet? How was he supposed to keep anything in a stomach that constantly twisted with anxiety? All food tasted like ash in his mouth these days anyway. “I’m fine. Eat. Your metabolism needs it.”

They both knew that the downside of Wrecker’s enhancement was that his body burned through calories twice as fast as any other clone. Still, he set the bar down on his lap and crossed his arms. “Not until you do.”

Hunter groaned. “Wrecker.”

“I mean it. If you don’t eat, I don’t eat.”

Hunter yanked the drawer back open. “And I thought Omega was the child.” He took out another plain protein bar, ripped open the wrapping, and took a bite. “Happy?” he said through a dry mouth.

Wrecker opened his and also took one bite. “A bite for a bite.”

“You’re not serious.”

Wrecker stared him down, no trace of levity on his face. Hunter took one more bite. Wrecker didn’t do the same until he had swallowed. Hunter kept going if only because he didn’t have the energy to argue further. Wrecker took smaller bites than he usually did so that he kept up with Hunter’s pace. When both bars were gone, Wrecker retrieved a hydration pack.

“Drink water too.”

Hunter snatched it from him with a resigned sigh. He drank half and then passed it back to let Wrecker finish it. “You going to tuck me into bed next?” he grumbled.

“Don’t tempt me. I can pin you on a rack, but I know I can’t make you sleep.”

Hunter stuffed his empty wrapper into the sack of trash that needed to be burned. “I don’t sleep anymore, Wrecker.” He had passed out from pure exhaustion a few times, but even then he woke up in a cold sweat a few hours later after dreaming that Omega was screaming his name over and over but no matter how far he ran or where he looked, he couldn’t get to her.

“Yeah,” Wrecker said, dropping his eyes. “Me either.”

They sat in silence. The droning sound of nighttime insects floated in through the open ramp. “Tell you what,” Hunter said. “We both lie down for a minimum of two hours. No one has to sleep, but we both have to rest. Deal?”

A tiny smile stretched Wrecker’s lips. “Deal.”

Wrecker took his usual upper bunk in the Marauder’s cabin and Hunter lay down directly beneath him. Wrecker probably wouldn’t go to sleep unless Hunter at least pretended to. He remained as still as possible and took long, slow breaths. Before long, he heard Wrecker’s heartbeat slow down and soft snores echo through the ship.

Then a strange thing happened. Instead of being haunted by the lingering scents and missing sounds on the ship, Hunter’s senses focused on Wrecker’s. His pulse was strong, his smell familiar. All of Hunter’s limbs felt heavy. Listening to Wrecker’s even breathing, he slipped off the edge into the black oblivion where Tech was falling, Omega was crying, and Crosshair’s weak voice choked out, “Plan 88.”

Chapter 2

Chapter Text

Omega did not come back for at least a week. Crosshair could almost convince himself he had hallucinated her visit had she not reached into his cell and touched him, real and solid. He wasn’t sure if something had happened to her since then, she just couldn’t get away from her overseers, or if she only came while he was out. Because they did not leave him in his cell all day anymore. And they didn’t take him for interrogation either. The day after he found out Omega was on Tantiss, three stormtroopers came, put binders on his hands, and took him somewhere new.

He was led through a part of the facility he had never seen before. It was a level above the cell block, through a narrow hallway, and up one more short elevator ride into a small circular room with glass walls all around. Giant, man-sized pods hooked up to dubious machinery lined the perimeter. Crosshair didn’t want to know their function.

He tensed when he saw Dr. Hemlock standing and watching out one of the windows into a room below. His hands were folded behind his back as calmly as if he was birdwatching in a serene location. Crosshair stopped walking, but a trooper shoved him from behind and forced him up within a few steps of the doctor.

“Did the Kaminoans ever tell you how many enhanced clones they attempted to create before your batch was successful, Crosshair?” Hemlock said without turning around.

Crosshair scowled. He’d heard rumors of other enhanced experiments, but he never knew if they were true. He had never met another enhanced clone outside of his squad until they found out Omega was one. Or so they thought at the time.

“The Kaminoans have been well accomplished in the art of cloning for centuries,” Hemlock went on, “but they were always pushing the limits of science. Trying to do more. The Chancellor appreciated that. The Republic at large would not have agreed, of course, so his encouragement was, shall we say, covert. Initially, none of the enhanced clones survived past infancy. Until one particular batch not only survived but grew at a rate that made them…unruly. The Kaminoans had difficulty taming them. They were prone to violence, outbursts. Took issue with following orders. But the Chancellor and I both saw potential in them. He turned them over to me for reconditioning. My methods were considered unorthodox by some, but one cannot argue with the results.”

Crosshair heard commotion coming from the room below. Blasterfire. Clanging of metal. Grunts one might expect from a man hitting something forcefully. Hemlock glanced over his shoulder and inclined his head. The stormtroopers behind Crosshair pushed him forward until he could look down through the window. There he saw a training room of sorts. Panels shot up and disappeared from the floor at random intervals. Tall training droids shot live rounds. And four men in entirely black armor darted around between it all. Their armor was more form-fitting than a standard trooper’s. Their helmet design, with two diamond-shaped eye plates, was unlike any Crosshair had ever seen. Two of the men were especially slender. One sat back with a sniper rifle and took out targets with flawless precision. The other jumped nimbly over the barriers and sliced droids with two long vibroblades. There was a heavyset one that tore the droids apart with his bare hands. The fourth one wielded an electrostaff. No matter how many droids rose from the floor, all were destroyed in seconds.

Crosshair swallowed. Enhanced clones. Created before him. He could not take his eyes off the sniper. Could the Kaminoans have tweaked that same template to make him?

“Magnificent, aren’t they?” Hemlock said. “True works of art. Deadly, powerful. And completely loyal to me.”

A blaring tone sounded in the room below. The droids and walls sunk back into the floor. The four clones put their weapons down and filed into a perfect line. Some sort of medical droid, much less friendly-looking than the kind they used on Kamino, slid out of an alcove in the wall. It hovered before them and distributed a hydration pack to each clone. The men took off their helmets—at least, the top part that released at the chin—to drink. Crosshair’s frown deepened. They were clones alright, but their faces were off. Some were too long or too square. One of them had reddish hair. They were obviously taken from the Fett genome and deviated from there.

Just like his batch.

They drank their water mechanically, moving their arms in sync. They looked more like droids than men.

“I know you’ve longed for greatness, Crosshair,” Hemlock said. “That was why you remained with the Empire even when the rest of Clone Force 99 defected. You know you were not created like regular clones. You can accomplish more. Lieutenant Nolan failed to see your talents, and I do not fault you for making him pay for that mistake.” He turned to face Crosshair. “I can give you a clean slate and help you reach your full potential. You can become more than you ever have been before. Serve the Empire in a way short-sighted officers prevented until now.”

When Crosshair only stared him down, scowling, Hemlock said, “I have ways of forcing your compliance, of course. But I thought I would give you a chance to spare yourself that discomfort and come willingly.”

“Go kriff yourself,” Crosshair growled.

Hemlock brought his hands in front of him and rubbed the palm of the gloved one. “How unfortunate. The hard way it is, then.” He nodded to the stormtroopers.

The three white-clad men grabbed Crosshair and dragged him toward one of the pods. It opened upon their approach and he was shoved down onto an inclined table. In order to clamp his hands into the built-in shackles, they had to release his binders. Crosshair wanted to take the chance. He yanked his right arm free and tried to lunge for the trooper’s weapon. But the long days in captivity had made him weak. He’d had no opportunity to keep his muscles strong when he was merely laying and sitting in a cell day in and day out. They easily grabbed his arm and held him down until the clamps closed around his wrists and ankles.

The table leaned back. A domed contraption lowered down around his head. Crosshair recognized it. Something similar had been done to him back on Kamino, right after the war ended. He had long ago figured out that they had used it to mess with his inhibitor chip. But his chip was gone now. Surely Hemlock knew that. What did he think this machine would accomplish?

A jolt of electricity shot from either side of the dome, hitting Crosshair in the temples. He jerked against his restraints. Pain shot through his skull. It was like hot ice picks slowly piercing skin and bone. He clenched his teeth, but a cry still made it out of his mouth. The pain kept going, seemingly forever, until his whole body trembled.

By the time the machine finally cut off, he was drenched in sweat. Crosshair gasped for air. When he opened his eyes, Hemlock was nowhere to be seen. Another doctor was there in his place, monitoring the equipment.

“Take him back to his cell,” the doctor said. “We’ll resume tomorrow.”

Crosshair didn’t think his feet would hold him, but the stormtroopers gave him no choice. He didn’t resist when they pulled him up and put the binders back on his hands. He staggered after them, his head spinning and eyes on the floor. When he got back to his cell, he collapsed and knew nothing else until his daily meal was delivered.

That was just the beginning. Every day after that, Crosshair was taken for “reconditioning.” And he was not the only one. A few other clones, regs, had been selected to undergo the treatment too. They were all put in the pods and shocked into oblivion, their cries filling the chamber. Crosshair couldn’t begin to guess what parts of their brains were being targeted or how it was supposed to work. Tech would have had a theory.

Once a day, when it was over, the doctor present would come to each of them and ask their names. When they answered in weak voices, the doctor frowned and made a note on his or her datapad. Then they were taken away to recover in their cells.

That was how Omega found Crosshair when she at last made it back to him. He was pulled from a pain-induced doze by her voice whispering just outside his cell, “Crosshair! I tried to come earlier, but there were too many guards watching me.”

He turned his head to see her crouching in the same place as before, watching him through the slats. She looked healthy, if nothing else. A tiny bit of tension eased in Crosshair’s chest at seeing that. Whatever reason they had for bringing her here, maybe it didn’t involve experimentation.

He sighed. As if it mattered. She was trapped here either way, and it was only a matter of time before they decided she was no longer useful to them. And sneaking around where she wasn’t allowed wouldn’t help anything in that regard. “You shouldn’t be down here at all,” he said.

“Well, how else are we going to plan an escape?”

Crosshair needed to cut off that line of thinking immediately. He was not going to let her choke on green gas while trying to escape like he had. And he could not let her get attached to him. He was honestly not sure how much longer he was going to survive. The reconditioning had obviously not worked on him yet, but if it eventually did, he didn’t think he would be himself anymore. And if it didn’t, they would probably kill him. Omega had already lost enough people. It would be better if she relied on no one but herself from here on out. “There is no ‘we,’” he said, sitting up. “And there is no escape. I’ve already tried.”

“Every stronghold has a weak point,” she said. “Maybe I can convince Emerie to help. She’s one of us.”

Crosshair wracked his aching brain to remember who Emerie was. As he studied Omega’s face, it hit him. She must be that female doctor with brown hair who talked like Omega. No wonder she seemed inexplicably familiar. He wouldn’t put it past the Kaminoans to have created more female clones without telling anyone. It would be the least of their secrets. But that doctor was not on their side, clone or not. She’d been involved in Crosshair’s torture when he first arrived. “Not every clone is your ally,” he said. “You trust too easily.”

Omega’s eyebrows pulled together. “Maybe you don’t trust enough.”

As Crosshair looked at her, he noticed a strange thing. The shadows cast upon her face by the hexagonal grate of his door formed a rough circle with four spokes emanating from it around her right eye. It looked strikingly like his tattoo. And though he had not exactly forgotten, he remembered, like a punch to the gut, that this could be his daughter. She was here, all alone, wasting her time trying to conjure a plan of escape with him instead of keeping her head down and staying alive.

A tremor traveled down his right arm and into his hand as if he was back in the pod being shocked. He cupped the shaking hand inside his other one. He couldn’t let anything happen to her. He had no power to protect her from in here, but he could see that she protected herself. And that started with helping her to forget about him.

And him forgetting about her.

“Crosshair?” she asked after a moment.

“Just go,” he said. “Before you make things worse for both of us.”

She only hesitated for a few seconds before picking up her pail. If she was smart, she wouldn’t come back. She would leave him to his sorry fate and focus on herself. Maybe she would find a way to escape. Slipping out on her own might be easier than dragging him with her. Pushing her away was the last good thing he could do with his life.

He should have known she wouldn’t be so easy to convince. Before she left, she knelt back down and said, “There has to be a way out of here. I’ll find it.” Then she turned and left.

* * * * *

Crosshair quickly lost track of the days. He knew he passed Omega in the hall sometimes as he and the other clones were led to the reconditioning chamber, but he didn’t look at her. To his relief, she learned not to look at him either.

He grew somewhat accustomed to the pain of his torture. His mind felt more and more like mush every day, but at the end of the session, when asked his name, he always managed to choke out, “Crosshair.”

There came a day when one of the regs said, “I have no name.” He was led away separately and didn’t come back.

Omega kept coming to Crosshair’s cell. She sat outside his door every afternoon while he recovered. He couldn’t always process what she said, but she talked whether he answered or not. She still spouted ideas about escaping together, though from what he heard she hadn’t figured how to do it yet. Eventually, she moved on to talking about other things. Her daily tasks around Nala Se’s lab. The doll she’d made out of scavenged straw from the kennels. The lurca hound she was slowly befriending down there (who, naturally, she had named “Batcher”). He rarely said anything back. She had to take the hint sometime.

He had to wonder, as the weeks went by, if maybe Omega knew who he was, and that was why she refused to leave him alone. Did Hunter tell her the truth? Did she ever develop an enhancement? He considered asking her about it, but if she didn’t know, he didn’t want to be the one to tell her and risk her getting even more attached to him.

It was on a particularly bad day of reconditioning, as Crosshair’s head pounded, that Omega sat outside his cell and rambled, “I dressed Batcher’s wounds as best I could. At least she didn’t bite me. That’s progress, right? If she doesn’t get better soon… Maybe I can steal a med kit from the lab and see if there’s anything I can use.”

“Stop,” he interrupted, pain knocking against his skull. He couldn’t do this today. He needed to get through to her once and for all. “What is your primary objective?”

“Escape,” she answered at once.

“Then stop wasting time on lost causes. Forget the hound. Forget me. And complete the mission.”

“Not without you,” she said stubbornly.

“If I get the chance to escape, I wouldn’t think twice about leaving you behind.” It was a lie. Not that he expected to have the opportunity, but if he did, he wouldn’t leave her here alone. But he needed her to believe that he would. He needed to absolve her of any guilt about leaving him. She needed to get out. If it was his fate to die here, he could accept that. What he could not handle was Omega spending whatever remained of her childhood on Tantiss until Hemlock disposed of her. Hunter would never forgive him.

Tech would never forgive him.

Omega scoffed. “You’re lying. You wouldn’t do that. You’re my brother.”

Well, that answered that question. She still thought she was a clone. Good. The more distance between them, the better. For her own good, he put as much venom into his next words as he could. “I’m not them. ”

She only frowned. “I’m not giving up, Crosshair. I won’t let you either.” She stood and gathered up her pail. She walked away with her shoulders slumped.

Damn it all. Even if that was what he was trying to do, he hated it. Maybe there was another way he could get through to her. He stood up. “Omega.”

She froze in her tracks. When she turned back to look at him with wide eyes, he realized something. He’d never addressed her by her name before. She’d only ever been “kid.”

“Don’t risk anything for me,” he said. “I belong in here.” He was truly coming to believe it, too. For all the people he’d killed in the name of the Empire. For all the worlds he’d helped subjugate. This was his punishment. He wouldn’t let them turn him into a mindless droid, but he knew what the eventual alternative would be. They would torture him until he died. He didn’t know what else he’d been expecting. He should have realized a long time ago that this was the inevitable end of the path he chose.

Omega raised her chin. “None of us belong in here. We’re all going to get out. You’ll see.”

He watched her go, wondering how she could still be holding onto hope. It made no logical sense. Didn’t Tech teach her to calculate the odds? He sat back down on his bunk with a groan. His right hand shook and shook and wouldn’t stop.

The next day, Omega came and sat down silently by his door, which was odd. He lay still and waited for her to talk. She rested her arms across her knees and laid her head on them. Slow minutes ticked by. Crosshair only just now realized that her hair had grown long enough for a small ponytail to be gathered at the base of her neck.

Finally, he sighed. “What’s the matter with you?”

“I helped Batcher escape into the jungle,” she mumbled. “Hemlock was mad. He threatened to hurt you if I don’t behave.”

Crosshair clenched his teeth. This was exactly why he didn’t want her getting attached to him. He braced himself against the full-body aches as he sat up. “Don’t listen to him. He wants me alive too.”

“He said he’d be willing to sacrifice you.” She sniffled. “But letting Batcher go was the right thing to do. They were going to kill her just because I domesticated her.”

Well, that sounded about right. Crosshair sighed again. “Just keep your head down. It will blow over.”

She sniffled one more time and then went quiet. He waited.

“Do you think they’re okay, Crosshair?” she asked in a whisper. “Hunter and Wrecker and Echo? I thought they would have found us by now.”

Crosshair squeezed his right hand to stop it from trembling. Even though he tried his best not to think about his former brothers, it was hard not to when the kid they’d raised made a daily appearance at his cell. He should tell her the truth. That they probably didn’t survive. That they weren’t coming to save her. It was time she faced it.

But the words wouldn’t form on his tongue. “Tantiss is well-hidden,” he said instead. “The Empire made sure of that.”

Omega looked up. Her eyes were red. She rested her head against the wall behind her. “You’re probably right. I know they’re looking for us. They’ll never stop. Dad would never stop.”

Crosshair felt his face go slack. He blinked at her. “What did you say?”

“I said Hunter would never stop looking for us.”

“That’s not what you said.”

She scrunched up her nose as she looked at him. “It’s not?”

“You didn’t call him Hunter.”

It took a second for her to catch up. Her eyebrows shot up. “I called him Dad, didn’t I?”

“Uh-huh.”

She picked at a hangnail. “Please don’t tell him. When we see him again, please don’t tell him I said that. He said I’m like a daughter to him, but…he never said I could call him that. I didn’t mean to. It just slipped out.”

If Crosshair wasn’t in so much pain, he might have snorted. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think he’d mind.”

She shrugged miserably. “I never got up the courage to ask him about it before everything happened.”

Crosshair stared at his feet for a while. He shouldn’t get her hopes up, but he hated that pitiful expression on her face. “Maybe you can the next time you see him.”

She leaned her head back again. “Yeah, maybe.” They lapsed into another silence. “I know what you’ve been trying to do, you know,” she said after a few minutes. “You’re trying to push me away so that I’ll leave you and save myself.”

He humphed. “Aren’t you clever.”

“But it’s not going to work. Right now, we’re all each other has. The only way we’re going to get out of this is together. Hunter said that’s the strength of this squad. That we stick together. So that’s what we’re going to do.”

There were a hundred things Crosshair could say about Hunter’s philosophy of sticking together. A philosophy that apparently didn’t extend to him back on Kamino or ever since. But if he was honest with himself, he knew it wasn’t all Hunter’s fault. Crosshair’s inhibitor chip had been active in the beginning, and Hunter didn’t know it. None of them did. Crosshair had been given a chance to go with the others after the destruction of Tipoca City, and he didn’t take it. He couldn’t blame that on the chip. That was mostly because the thought that the little girl sitting in front of him right now might be his daughter was too terrifying to face. She was better off with people who knew what to do with her. They had already formed a new family unit without him. It was clear there was no place for him in it.

And now here they were, just the two of them stuck in hell.

We’re all each other has.

Her words kept coming back to him the next time he was taken to reconditioning. Energy pierced his brain, trying to scramble his thoughts, his will. But through it all he kept thinking, we’re all each other has. If the others really are dead, then I’m all she has left.

He was breathing hard when the machine finally cut off for the day. A female doctor in the standard gray uniform approached him as his table inclined.

“What is your name, trooper?” she asked without raising her eyes from her datapad.

“Crosshair.” The word came out stronger than usual. It didn’t grate on his throat.

The doctor glanced up at him, frowned, and typed something quietly. “Return CT-9904 to his cell,” she told the stormtroopers nearby. “We’ll increase the intensity tomorrow.”

Omega was in better spirits when she came to Crosshair’s cell that afternoon. They had not found Batcher yet, she said. The hound was still free. On top of that, Emerie had returned the straw doll she initially confiscated. Omega took out the top part of her pail and produced her treasure from the bottom compartment to show him.

Crosshair felt a rare tug on his heartstrings. She’d made her own Lula; a crude version of Wrecker’s beloved stuffed animal. It had two long ears, a round face, and a triangle for a mouth just like the original. He wondered if Wrecker had given the real Lula to her after she’d joined them. He wouldn’t put it past him. As a cadet, Wrecker had never been able to sleep without the toy to cuddle with, but it would just like him to pass it on to his little niece.

Crosshair rubbed his shaking hand again. This wasn’t just Hunter’s kid, was it? She belonged to all of them. “Tell me what they taught you.”

Omega co*cked her head to one side as she put Straw Lula back in its hiding place. “What?”

“How did the others train you? If we’re going to escape, I need to know what you can do.”

Her face lit up. She launched into a long explanation of her practice with her energy bow, Echo’s blaster training, basic demolition ordinance with Wrecker, piloting lessons with Tech, and a host of other things. Crosshair couldn’t help mentally talleying all the things he would have added to the list if he had been there. She sounded capable enough. If she ever did find a weak point in this fortress, they might stand a slim chance of slipping away.

Getting outside was just one problem, though. They would need a way off-world. The hangers would be swarming with troopers. The shuttles would have trackers. The planet would have orbital defenses. Maybe he shouldn’t encourage her. The odds were astronomically against them.

“Once we escape, we can contact Hunter and the others to come get us,” Omega said. “Then we can all go home. Just wait until you see Pabu.”

Crosshair raised an eyebrow at her. “What is that?”

“It’s an island! On a remote world, where we live now. It’s beautiful and fun. We love it. …Tech did too. And I know you will.”

He honestly did not know how to respond to that. She thought that if everything she hoped came true, that they escaped Tantiss and reconnected with the others who were somehow miraculously alive, he would be coming home with her. She thought Hunter would take him back after everything. Even though Tech was dead because of him. And the most baffling thing was that she seemed to want him to come. She didn’t just want his help getting back to the others. She wanted him to stick around afterward too. He couldn’t understand it. He’d never done anything for her. She barely knew him. She had no idea he might be her biological father, and at this point he didn’t think she ever needed to know.

Voices of distant stormtroopers echoed down the hall. Omega picked up her pail. “I have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow, Crosshair.”

Crosshair laid back down on his rack. For a brief moment, he wondered what this beautiful island was like. With a sigh, he shook his head. It didn’t matter. He was never going to see it.

The next day, Hemlock graced his experiments with his presence in the reconditioning lab. It was just Crosshair and one other reg this time.

“Your resilience this far has been admirable,” the doctor said as Crosshair was strapped into the pod. “But we’ve made a few adjustments to the treatment. I am eager to see the results for myself.”

The pain that followed was unlike any Crosshair had ever experienced. Knives lanced into his brain, and all he could do was convulse and wait for it to stop. He felt like he’d do anything, say anything, believe anything, if only it would stop. Rational thought no longer existed. The only things left in the galaxy were him and the pain. His head was splitting open and his body was raw.

He could not even tell when it ended. Words floated to him through the haze.

“What is your name, trooper?” said someone he both recognized and hated.

He had to think way too hard about the answer. He ran his numb tongue across dry lips. He had a name, didn’t he? He didn’t care. He just wanted to sink into the void and not come back.

But then he heard it in her voice. His name, whispered into the recesses of his scrambled mind. “Crosshair,” he gasped. That felt right. That voice wouldn’t lie.

The person from before—Hemlock, his brain supplied—hummed. “Disappointing. But there’s still time.”

The next thing Crosshair knew, he was back in his cell. He was coherent enough to remember who he was and to register that Omega was calling to him from behind the door, but he didn’t have enough strength to respond.

“You’re going to be okay, Crosshair,” she said. She sounded upset. “Please, just hang on. We’re going to get out of here.”

He couldn’t so much as turn his head in her direction. His consciousness slipped away again until he heard his food tray sliding across the floor what must have been hours later. He knew he should really get up and eat. If the food wasn’t eaten by nightfall, they took it away and he missed his chance. But he couldn’t move. Honestly, he didn’t care if he ever moved again.

“That little blonde kid has been sneaking around here again,” someone said on the periphery of his awareness. “Why do they keep her around? She seems like more trouble than she’s worth.”

“I don’t know. She’s important to Hemlock for something. Best not to ask questions.”

The speakers’ voices were modulated by helmets, but they sounded different from clones. Stormtroopers, then. Pawns.

“I only ever see her working for the Kaminoan and Dr. Karr. I don’t think she’s Hemlock’s project. He probably wouldn’t notice if she was messed with.”

“Messed with how?”

“I’m just saying. It’s not like we’ve had shore leave in a while and all the women here are more interested in their experiments than anything else. All the other prisoners are these kriffing clones. Kids can be talked into things. They don’t know the difference.”

Crosshair’s eyes snapped open. Strength flooded his limbs all at once. He raised himself up on his elbows. He could see the two stormtroopers a few yards away by another cell. “Just try it,” he ground out. His vocal cords scratched with the effort.

The two troopers turned toward him. One hefted his blaster. “What did you say, lab rat?”

That was the one. The men were identical in their armor, but their cadence was different. Crosshair sat up, ignoring his light-headedness. He looked straight into the trooper’s eyeplate. “You touch her, you so much as look at her, and I’ll kill you.”

“Hm. Big talk for a man in a cell.”

“I won’t be in here forever. I’m going to shoot you right between the eyes.”

“You so sure you’re going to live long enough to do that?”

The other stormtrooper came and grabbed his elbow. “C’mon. We’re not supposed to talk to them. Leave it be.”

The other one took two steps back. “Know your place, clone.” He turned and followed the other one away. Crosshair watched him, studying his walk, the way he carried his gun, anything that might help him identify the trooper later. He eased himself onto the floor and picked the spoon up off his tray. He needed to eat. He needed to keep his strength up if he was going to kill that bastard. And he definitely was.

Just before lights-out that evening, he heard soft footsteps patter down the hallway. He got up and sat down by his door when Omega tiptoed quickly up to him. “What are you doing here?” he hissed.

She crouched down on the other side of the grate. “I convinced Emerie to let me come check on you. You didn’t look good earlier. I was worried.”

He sighed. “I’m fine.” He wasn’t, but that was beside the point. “Omega, listen to me. If any of the guards ever—ever come into your cell alone, or try to touch you in any way, fight them. Scream. Struggle. Make as much noise as you can. Don’t let them do anything to you.”

She frowned. “Why would they do that?”

He rested his forehead against the grate. “Just…just promise me, okay? Promise me you’ll defend yourself.”

She blinked in confusion, but must have decided she should humor him in his weakened state. “I promise. We’re both going to be okay. We’re going to make it home.” She reached through the slats and squeezed his wrist. “We just have to hold on a little longer.”

He closed his eyes against the pure optimism in her tone. She was so naïve. And so innocent.

She withdrew her hand. “I better go. Emerie only gave me one minute. I just had to see you. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

Crosshair listened to her light steps ricochet off the metal walls as she left.

We’re all each other has.

Pain. Debilitating. All-consuming.

We’re all each other has.

Blades through his temple, trying to get him to forget.

We’re all each other has.

Sweat pooling around his body. Ragged breaths filling his lungs.

“What’s your name, trooper?”

We’re all each other has.

“Crosshair.”

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

Hunter’s armor was splattered with blood. He wished he could say that was a rare thing. More often than not he came back from missions lately with the blood of Imperials decorating his chestplate and greaves. He crouched behind a crate on the landing field and peeked at the back door to the base a few yards away. This remote Imperial outpost was poorly guarded. He had successfully silenced the six perimeter guards without the alarm being raised. Stormtrooper armor didn’t do much to protect a neck from a well-placed knife. Maybe he should have stunned them instead. But maybe he didn’t care. Besides, this way he could be sure the troopers didn’t wake up and provide reinforcement once he got inside.

Hunter tapped his helmet comm with two fingers. “All clear. Move in.”

Echo and Wrecker emerged from the dense vegetation surrounding the base. Darkness provided them cover, but they still ran forward in a crouch as quietly as possible.

“They must not do regular checks,” Hunter said when his brothers had joined him behind the crate. “No one’s noticed the radio silence and come out to check.”

Wrecker grunted. “Sloppy.”

“You think the officer here will really have the intel?” Echo asked.

Hunter wiped off his blade with a rag from his pack before sliding it back into the sheath on his arm. “Phee’s contact said he might. He was involved with transporting Nala Se from her holding cell on Coruscant right after the fall of Kamino. If they really did keep her alive, and Hemlock was telling the truth about taking Omega to her, then he must know where they went.”

This was the ninth base they had raided. None of Phee’s underworld contacts knew where Hemlock operated, if they had even heard of him at all, but a few provided the names of Imperials who might have the information. Hunter and the others had spent the last several weeks tracking down each one. So far, either their intel about the Imperials’ location had been bad and they ended up with no one to question, or the officers offed themselves before they even got the chance. Rex’s team had the same problem. Hunter didn’t know how the Empire was instilling such loyalty in its minions that they agreed to have electrical implants hidden in their teeth to bite down on instead of revealing anything about the Advanced Science Division. All he could figure was that these men were genuinely more terrified of what the Empire would do to them than they were of a quick death.

Hunter drew his blaster. He took one more moment to listen to everything around him. A bird called out from the wilderness. Wind rustled the leaves of the trees. No foreign heartbeats remained in the area. “Let’s go.”

As they ran for the door, Hunter’s senses picked up an electrical pulse. He clocked the security camera stationed on the wall and took it out with a neat shot. Echo scomped into the door port.

“It’s asking for a security code. Did you pick up a cylinder from any of the guards?”

Hunter pulled the metal stick from his belt. “Took it off the first one.”

Echo nodded to the blinking light on the door controls and Hunter tapped the cylinder against it. The door grated open. The three soldiers slid inside with their weapons at the ready. They needed to do this quietly. During their last two attempts, the officer in charge had been alerted to intruders overcoming the base before they got to him. All that was left by the time they reached their quarters was a dead body with a charred mouth.

Two stormtroopers strolled around the corner. They went rigid with surprise, but they got no words out before Wrecker and Echo stunned them. Hunter hoped the sound of their bodies hitting the floor didn’t alert anyone else nearby. He stepped over them and led the way down the narrow, gray hall. He heard two more sets of footsteps approaching from a side corridor. He signaled for the others to fall back against the wall.

They waited until the troopers rounded the corner. The men crumpled immediately when stunned. Wrecker dragged them out of the way and Hunter went on. They stunned five more guards: two pairs and one individual who was apparently just reporting for his night shift, his helmet under his arm and his eyes half-lidded. This was going better than their last several missions. They stuck to the hallway that hugged the outer edge of the building until they came to the back eastern corner.

“If the schematics we got were right, the officer’s quarters should be just ahead,” Echo whispered.

They stopped before coming to it so that Hunter could listen. The executive wing would have the most security. He heard multiple heartbeats, quiet conversations, and footfalls. “At least ten,” he said. “Maybe more.”

Suddenly, he picked up the sound of creaking armor in the hall behind him and whipped around.

“Hey!” a stormtrooper cried. He went down in a stun blast but not before his partner fired a single shot that whizzed past Wrecker’s ear.

Hunter flicked his blaster off of stun. “Time’s up.” He shot the other trooper in the chest. As expected, the sound of running feet echoed through the corridor as the base’s remaining forces converged on them. An alarm blared from the ceiling and the dim yellow nighttime lights were replaced with glaring white. Wrecker and Echo closed rank behind him.

They laid down a rain of fire as they moved as one unit into the executive wing. They took down half of the troopers there quickly, but more poured out from multiple doorways along the wide hallway.

A slight man with red hair poked his head out of one of the doors. “What is going—” His eyes went wide when he saw the clones in their mismatched armor. He jerked back into his room.

“Stop him!” Hunter shouted.

Wrecker barreled forward. He caught the closing door with one big hand and pushed it back open. Hunter fired two more quick shots and dove under his arm. The Imperial backed up and hit the edge of his desk in the small square room. His officer’s uniform hung on a rack to one side, crisp and pressed. He was dressed in a blue nightshirt and pants. He groped behind him for the blaster sitting just out of his reach on the desktop.

Hunter aimed his blaster at him. “I wouldn’t, if I were you.”

“Whatever you want, you won’t find it here,” the man said.

“We’ll see.”

Echo skidded into the room. Wrecker came in, letting the door close, and Echo knelt down to put his scomp into the port to jam the door. They had cleared out a lot of the base’s forces, but voices still shouted outside. Reinforcements would be called in before long.

Hunter motioned with his head. Wrecker yanked the man forward, forced him to his knees, and trapped his arms behind his back. Hunter holstered his blaster and pulled out his knife instead, standing over him. “You are going to tell us about the transfer of a certain prisoner. What was the destination of Kaminoan scientist Nala Se?”

Fear flashed through the officer’s eyes. He opened his mouth. Hunter caught the tightening of his jaw just in time. He shoved the hilt of his knife in between the man’s teeth just as he tried to bite down. He squawked indignantly.

“Guess we’re doing this the hard way.” Hunter roughly held the man’s chin with one hand while slinging off his pack and digging through it with the other. He pulled out a pair of needle-nose pliers he borrowed from Tech’s supplies. “Yeah, we came prepared,” he said in response to the man’s incredulous look.

Wrecker helped him pull the officer’s head back and pry open his mouth. Hunter put his knife away. Peering into the man’s disgusting mouth, he easily picked out the electrical implant in place of a lower molar. He clamped the pliers around it and pulled. The Imperial shrieked. They let go of his mouth and let him spit out blood. Hunter closed his palm around the implant.

“You obviously aren’t afraid to die,” he said, “but we can do worse things. We’ll start by plucking out a few actual teeth. Unless you tell us what we want to know. Where did they take Nala Se?”

“What is this, clone loyalty?” the Imperial sneered. “What does it matter to you?”

Wrecker growled. He twisted the man’s arms farther behind his back.

“We’re the ones asking questions,” Hunter said. “I suggest you answer them.”

“Couldn’t even if I wanted to. I don’t know where they took her.”

“You’re lying. You wouldn’t be willing to kill yourself if you didn’t have information the Empire didn’t want you to share.”

“They’re going to kill me anyway, even if you don’t. The mere fact that you asked about it is a death sentence.”

“We can get you off-world if you cooperate,” Echo said from the door.

The officer sniffed. “You’re all delusional. You have no idea what you’re up against. There’s no escape from the Emperor. His rule will spread galaxy-wide. And rescuing one Kaminoan isn’t going to stop it.”

Hunter brought the pliers close to the man’s face. “It’s not her we’re after. They took someone from us to the same place they took Nala Se. Tell us where that is.”

The Imperial threw his head back and laughed. “You might as well give up. I was only tasked with escorting the Kaminoan part of the way. I departed on Castell and let the clone crew of the ship take her the rest of the way. That was by design. Clones that go wherever they took her are never seen again. They didn’t know it, but they were prisoners as much as their charge. If one of your ‘brothers’ was taken there, he’s already dead.”

Hunter saw Echo’s shoulders stiffen out of the corner of his eye.

“The person taken from us isn’t a clone,” Hunter said, bringing the pliers dangerously close to the officer’s eye. “She’s a kid. That’s how depraved your Empire is. They kidnapped a little girl and took her to a secret lab.” He opened the pliers and rested the prongs on either side of the man’s right eyeball. “And you best believe I will do anything to bring her back.” He pressed the metal harder into his skin. “Anything. So tell me. Where. She is.”

The officer swallowed, his adam’s apple bobbing. “I don’t know. My assignment was to see the clones and the Kaminoan to Castell, and that’s it. I wasn’t the pilot. I don’t know where they went after that. I knew they were being transferred to a lab where they experiment on clones, but I wasn’t told the location.”

“Who’s your commanding officer?” Echo asked.

“He doesn’t know either. No one does. That information comes directly from Coruscant, and it was only given to the clone pilot of the ship. All those clones were marked as decommissioned after that.”

Hunter’s fingers holding the pliers twitched.

“Sarge,” Wrecker said, “I think he’s tellin’ the truth.”

Hunter knew he was. The man’s heart had been pounding ever since the intruders came into his room, but it didn’t beat faster when he talked like a sentient’s usually would while lying. Hunter slowly lowered his hand.

The shouting outside the door increased. Hunter caught the word “detonator.” He dropped the pliers back into his pack and let the implant roll on the floor. “Time to go. Stun him.”

“It’s a lost cause,” the Imperial spat. “If that kid isn’t dead yet, she will be soon. I’ve heard about Hemlock. If he has a hold of her, he’ll cut her open and gut her like a fish—”

Hunter drew his blaster. He fired a single shot between the Imperial’s eyes. Wrecker started and jumped back as the body slouched in front of him, leaving a thin trail of smoke in its wake.

“...You said we’d let him go if he talked,” Echo said.

“And he rejected the offer,” Hunter said. “Now the Empire won’t torture him for information on us. Wrecker, smoke bombs.”

Wrecker and Echo turned their helmets toward one another. Hunter didn’t care what silent message passed between them. He didn’t care what they thought of his methods. All he cared about was that they had finally gotten their hands on a promising lead and it didn’t even matter. The Empire was too careful. The Advanced Science Division was always a step ahead of them. Hemlock was a ghost, slipping through their fingers like vapor.

Wrecker set off a smoke grenade as soon as Echo opened the door. Hunter shot as many Imperials as he could while he and his brothers escaped through the haze.

* * * * *

The Marauder’s interior was quiet as the ship hurtled through hyperspace. Even their GNK droid (“Gonky” as Wrecker and Omega called it) had been subdued of late. Its beeps sounded forlorn every time it turned toward the gunner’s mount. Hunter sat staring at the console screen as if it would yield anything new. They had exhausted Phee’s list. There was no other plan to make, no other schematics to study. This had been their last lead unless she or any of Rex’s contacts came up with something else. He should have learned by now that hope was a dangerous thing. He should have known better than to let himself believe that this would actually be the key that led them to Omega.

He should have expected the soul-robbing disappointment that came after every failed attempt. But it was still crippling. Every time.

Ninety days. It had been three full months since he’d heard his daughter’s voice and looked into her baby brown eyes. She would have aged half a year in that time. With every day that passed, Hunter died a little bit more. He wondered how much of him would be left when they finally got her back.

Blue light shone off of the cracks in Tech’s broken goggles where they sat next to the console. Wrecker had set them there the day they fled Ord Mantell, and they hadn’t been moved since. If Tech were here, they would have found Omega already. He may not have known the location of Hemlock’s lab at the outset, which was why they went to Eriadu in the first place, but by now he would have figured it out. He would have sliced into some Imperial mainframe somewhere and gotten the answer. Or maybe Omega never would have been taken at all. This—the poor excuse for a life they were living right now—was not what he died to give them. He didn’t sacrifice himself just so that his brothers could turn around and immediately lose Omega. Hunter was dishonoring his memory every day they didn’t get her back.

Metal footsteps creaked behind him. “We knew it was a longshot,” Echo said. “Every lead has been.”

Hunter didn’t answer. It was a poor consolation and he had nothing to add.

He heard Echo shift his weight. “Rex sent us a written message while we were out. He’s been contacted by another deserter that needs extraction. Said he could use our help.”

Hunter spun his chair around to face him. “You want us to run a separate mission?”

“We don’t have any new leads on the ASD. We might as well be useful while we wait.”

“Useful.” Hunter glanced at Wrecker, who was sitting on the lower rack. His brother met his eyes with a surprised expression. “And what if more intel comes in while we’re busy doing something else?”

“Then we’ll go wherever we need to as soon as we’re done.”

“What if it’s time-sensitive and we miss the window to act?”

“That’s not very likely.”

“But you don’t know that. You would make Omega wait longer to be rescued? You would risk not getting to her at all? For the sake of a clone we don’t know?”

Echo sighed curtly. “I’m not saying that. There’s just more we could be doing in between. There are others who need our help.”

Hunter didn’t care about the others. Maybe it made him a terrible person, or maybe he really was that dead inside. But his concern for other clones had faded so far into the background in comparison to recovering his daughter that he had no space left to worry about them. He shook his head. “No. Rex has other people he can ask. We hold position and wait for a new target to be identified.”

“You don’t know how long that could take. The clone needs help now .”

Hunter stood up. “That’s not our problem.”

Echo fixed him with a hard stare. “This is a brother we’re talking about, Hunter.”

“Who’s a grown man surely capable of handling himself. He’s not more important than Omega.”

“I didn’t mean he was more important. But it’s still something we can actually do. A mission we can accomplish. Not grasping at straws like we have been.”

“I don’t care how many dead ends we run into. We’re getting her back.”

Echo pursed his lips. After a moment, his face softened. “Hunter, we’ve been from one end of the galaxy to the other three times already. You’re running yourself ragged. Thinking about something else for a little while might do you some good.”

Hunter had never considered himself a man with a short fuse. Well, except where Crosshair was concerned. He had the uncanny ability to press all of Hunter’s buttons. Lately, however, he’d found it harder to keep a lid on his frayed nerves. So when he peeled back the layers of what Echo was saying, he heard one thing. “You think finding Omega is a lost cause.”

“Not a lost cause. Just…” Echo ran a hand across his bald head, brushing over his cranial implants. “We have to be realistic. We can’t keep doing this. We should branch out to keep up morale. Then we’ll follow the leads as they come in.”

Hunter crossed his arms. Wrecker’s brows pulled together and Hunter turned to him. “You feel the same way?”

Wrecker’s big shoulders sagged. “I dunno. I get where you’re coming from, Echo but… Feels wrong. Like we’re moving on without her.”

“Don’t you think Omega would want us to help people when we can?” Echo asked. “She had the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. She would’ve insisted that we take the mission to rescue another clone.”

Hunter felt all the muscles in his arms tense. Had. He spoke of her in the past tense. “Omega’s not dead,” he snapped. “That Imperial was full of osik. ”

The pitying look Echo gave him only ratcheted up his agitation. “Of course. Of course she’s not.”

Hunter pushed past him into the co*ckpit. If he kept looking at his face, he might say or do something he’d regret later. “You do what you want. Wrecker and I are going to keep looking for her. We’re not stopping for anything until she’s home.”

He snatched up the armor cleaning kit on his way and then parked himself in the co-pilot’s seat. He kept his back to Echo as he stripped off his bloody armor one piece at a time and set it in a pile on the floor in front of him. Wrecker silently came to sit beside him in the pilot’s chair after a few minutes, but Echo remained in the cabin.

Hunter tipped the bottle of cleaning oil onto their well-used rag. It filled the ship with a familiar, sharp scent. He methodically rubbed down his chestplate, bracers, and greaves. If he had been on Kamino, every bit of this armor would have been replaced by now. It bore more scratches and dents than he could count. The varnish it had the first day he received it was completely rubbed off. The red line that used to decorate the center of his chestplate was gone. He only had one pauldron left. He’d lost the other one during their last attempt to get intel. When he’d pulled off his helmet that day, his bandana also fell off in two threadbare pieces. It had finally reached its limit. Hunter replaced it with a brown strip of fabric torn from Wrecker’s old nightshirt.

He took his time cleaning off all the blood, dirt, and scorch marks from his armor. The motions were easy, methodical. Something he’d been doing almost all his life. When he was cleaning his armor or his weapons, he could think about only that and disconnect from the rest of the world.

At least, that used to be the case. Now, as he wiped the rag over the two-inch patch on the left side of his chestplate, one particular memory looped in his head. After the encounter with Cad Bane, the day after they recovered Omega, Hunter sat down with their canister of armor putty to try and repair the circular hole left in his chestplate by Bane’s shot. The putty was really intended as a temporary solution for minor cracks, but Hunter had no other choice but to try and make it work. He used his knife to scrape the thick, gray, chalky substance around the edges of the hole and then, as it dried, further and further in toward the middle.

Omega found him working on it and watched in fascination. “Will that work?” she asked.

“It’s not a perfect solution, but it binds to the plastoid after it cures. It’s much better than leaving it open.”

“Can I help?”

Hunter scraped the last bit of putty in the center of the newly-formed patch. “Sure. Here, take this.” He pulled out the small contraption Tech had modified to make the armor repair process go faster. When held over a small area, it emitted low frequency radiation to significantly speed up the curing time. He flicked it on, pointing the beam of blue light at the patch. “Hold it here until it beeps.”

Omega took the flashlight-sized object in both of her small hands. The way she furrowed her brow and stuck out her tongue in concentration stirred affection deep in his chest. He had only just found out that he might be her father. It was still an intimidating prospect. But in that moment, with her adorableness on full display, he felt up to the task.

“What happens if you get shot again?” she asked after a minute. “Will this protect you?”

“Sort of. I’ll do my best not to get shot in the exact same place.”

He meant it as a joke, but Omega didn’t laugh. Her expression wilted. “I don’t want you to get hurt because of me anymore.”

He brushed a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. “Hey. I don’t regret trying to protect you. I’m just sorry it didn’t work. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

She didn’t look comforted, but Hunter couldn’t think of what else to say to make her feel better. When the device beeped, he took it from her and switched it off. “Now all that’s left to do is clean it. The oil helps solidify it.

Omega perked up. “Oil? You don’t clean your armor with water?”

“Nope. There’s a special cleaner that helps preserve its structural integrity. Want to see?”

He showed her how to tip the bottle just enough to get a dab of liquid on the cloth and how to rub the armor down with circular strokes. She insisted on doing it herself.

“When will I get my own armor?” she asked.

Hunter didn’t expect the sinking feeling the question elicited. He didn’t like thinking about her having to don armor like theirs. He didn’t want her going from battle to battle all her life like he had. He wanted more than that for her. For the first time, he thought about the future. Since fleeing Kamino, he had mostly focused on tackling one day at a time. They got by with running jobs for Cid for now, and he hadn’t thought too far ahead of that. But now he knew that Omega wasn’t his little sister. She wasn’t a clone at all. She was his child, most likely, and she wasn’t bred for war like he was. She had a chance to be more than he or his brothers ever could. He wanted to give her that life. He didn’t know how yet, but the desire was there.

He cleared his throat. “I don’t know where we’d find armor your size. So for now, just…just let me handle it, yeah? Stay close to me when we get into sticky situations.”

“I’m getting better with my bow,” she protested.

“I know you are. But all it takes is one stray blaster bolt.”

She looked up at him. “I’m a part of this squad too. I can help. I don’t want to hide behind you while you get hurt. It didn’t do any good on Bracca.”

Hunter sighed. He knocked his knuckles against the chestplate she was cleaning. “When I push you behind me, it’s because I’m trying to let this do what it’s supposed to and protect us both. I just need you to work with me, okay? Don’t let the experience on Bracca stop you from following orders.”

She pouted. “You don’t follow orders.”

“I’m an adult. As long as you’re not one, I need you to trust my judgment. Especially with two bounty hunters after you. You getting taken again is not an option.” Though he didn’t say it at the time, the thought of her being kidnapped now that he knew she was probably his own daughter was even more unthinkable. He knew he wouldn’t survive it.

Hunter snapped the cap back on the bottle of oil as he came back to himself, the memory fading. He had been right back then. He wasn’t surviving it.

He had just finished putting the last freshly clean piece of armor back on when Wrecker brought them down into an Outer Rim spaceport. It was even seedier than Ord Mantell.

“Rex is here to rendezvous,” Echo said, coming into the co*ckpit. “I’m going with him. I’ll start the refueling process and then head out.”

Hunter stared out the viewport at the stained duracrete wall of the docking bay instead of turning to face him. “Fine.”

Echo hesitated. “AZI’s still at Rex’s camp, so if you need him, you know where to look. If you get any news, any lead, contact me. I’ll come right away.”

“As long as you’re not on another mission,” Hunter said. He hated that anger was churning in his gut. This wasn’t the first time Echo left to do other things. But last time was different. Last time didn’t feel like a resignation to the inevitable.

There was another pause. If Echo was expecting Hunter to give his approval, he was out of luck.

“I’ll be in touch,” Echo said. “Every day.”

Wrecker stood up and clasped arms with him. “Be careful out there.”

“You do the same.”

When Hunter didn’t offer anything else, Echo left. Wrecker accompanied him down the ramp.

“Keep an eye on him,” Hunter heard Echo mutter once they were outside. He was probably trying to be quiet enough that Hunter’s enhanced hearing didn’t pick it up, but he wasn’t successful. “He’s not handling it well.”

“Can you blame him?” Wrecker said.

“No. No, I don’t blame him.”

Hunter slumped down in his chair. He let his ears sift through the sounds of the busy spaceport instead of listening to whatever else might have been said. Wrecker came back on board after the refueling was done. He sat down in the pilot’s chair. It was still a little strange to see him there. Not that they hadn’t all received the same flight training, but Tech had taken the mantle of pilot early on in their squad’s history, and if he was otherwise occupied the job usually fell to Hunter (or later, to Echo). Wrecker rightly judged that Hunter wasn’t up to it right now though, so he began the ship’s start up sequence.

“Where we headed?” he asked.

“Just take us into orbit,” Hunter said. “That way when a new lead comes in, we’ll be ready to make the jump.”

Wrecker nodded.

They floated above the orange planet that Hunter didn’t know the name of for a few hours. They let its orbit pull them slowly along, cutting the engine and just running life support to save power. Hunter sent a message to Phee to update her on their latest attempt and ask if she had anything new. He studied the star chart of the galaxy, making note of what sector they were in and how many hours it would take to jump from here to each other one on the map. He tried to focus on anything but the fact that there was only one other heartbeat on board beside his own. The Marauder had never been so empty. It wasn’t made to be.

After a while, he heard a crinkle behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to find Wrecker sitting in the other console chair munching on a protein bar. When Hunter saw the green color of its wrapper, he lunged forward with a gasp. He grabbed the half-eaten bar out of Wrecker’s hand.

“What are you doing?! I was saving that one for Omega!”

Wrecker’s mouth fell open with food still in it. “Huh?”

“That’s the meiloorun-flavored kind. We only had one left, and I—I was saving it for her.”

Wrecker swallowed loudly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. It was about to go bad…”

Hunter stared at the bar in his hand. It felt too hard. It was about to go bad. Omega had been gone so long that the food he was saving for her had expired. He shoved the bar back toward Wrecker as cold tingling crept up his fingertips. He spun around and stalked over to the gunner’s mount ladder. His lungs were constricting. He couldn’t get enough air into them. Gasping, he pressed his forehead into the metal rungs.

Focus. Focus on her scent. It had helped in the past. He forced his next breath to come in through his nose. It took several tries before scents started filtering into his brain. The cleaning oil. Traces of blood. Fumes picked up at the spaceport. The protein bar. Echo. Wrecker. He kept breathing and concentrating, his eyes squeezed shut.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find her. Omega’s scent had been fading for weeks, but he could usually still catch it here at the base of the gunner’s mount. But now…nothing. It had always seemed like a part of her was still here as long as he could still smell her. Now even that part of her was gone.

Hunter lost strength in his legs. His knees hit the floor hard. She was gone. They’d tried everything. Been everywhere. He couldn’t rescue her any more than he could stop her scent from fading. He was useless. A failure. He couldn’t breathe again. His head fell into his hands. His little girl, his baby. Gone, gone, gone.

A strangled noise escaped his throat. His gloves dampened with the tears he’d been holding back for three months. He didn’t realize how hard he was trembling until a big, warm hand cupped the base of his neck. It gently pulled him to one side until his head rested on a broad shoulder and big arms wrapped him up.

Wrecker didn’t speak. He just held Hunter together as he shattered.

“What if that Imperial was right,” Hunter said, his voice breaking. “What if she’s already dead?”

“She’s not.”

“But we don’t know. They wanted her alive when they captured her, but she might have outlived her usefulness to them. They might have killed her by now. She could have died and I wasn’t there to hold her hand. She could have been scared. In pain.”

“Our girl’s tough. And smart. I bet she’s tryin’ to find her way to us just as much as we’re tryin’ to find her. You taught her well. So did Tech.”

Hunter’s breath stuttered. “I miss them, Wrecker.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

They didn’t say anything else. There was a time when Hunter would have been mortified to fall apart in front of anyone like this. But Wrecker wasn’t just anyone. He was the last brother Hunter had left. All the others had left him in one form or another. All the pillars of his family had been kicked out from under him except this one.

He let Wrecker hold him, steady and strong, until he could breathe again.

Chapter 4

Chapter Text

Crosshair didn’t know exactly how long he and Omega had been on Tantiss, but he knew a few months must have passed by now. And he was still alive, surprisingly, even after resisting all Hemlock’s attempts to recondition him. All the regs had eventually succumbed, but Crosshair’s will never broke. The doctors must have finally realized the torture wasn’t working because he had not been removed from his cell for at least fourteen rotations. He woke up every morning wondering if this would be the day Hemlock decided to terminate him. He wasn’t sure what other use he could serve unless it was as collateral for forcing Omega’s compliance.

The only thing keeping him sane was her daily visits. He wouldn’t exactly call the time they spent together conversations. She did most of the talking, and he listened. But just hearing her voice and knowing she was healthy was usually enough to keep him going for one more day. From what he could glean, not much had changed in her routine. He never asked directly, but he found roundabout ways to discern if any troopers had shown her special attention. To his relief, Emerie must have been keeping a close eye on her. No one came near her without the clone doctor’s say-so. Crosshair was still going to kill the sick stormtrooper who had entertained those perverted ideas, though. Somehow.

The months of inactivity and reconditioning continued to sap his strength. He spent his days just sitting or laying in his cell. Sometimes he flexed his arms and legs in an attempt to keep his muscles from degrading. Escape seemed like a more distant dream with each passing day, but as long as Omega kept talking about it, it was hard to give up the idea entirely.

She appeared outside his cell suddenly one morning, much earlier than she usually would. He had been dozing when she whispered, “Crosshair!” and startled him awake.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, turning his head in her direction.

“Escaping. And you’re coming with me.”

He considered her. She was jittery. There was a fiery light in her eyes that he had not seen for a while. She had a datapad clutched in one hand. He eased himself into a sitting position. “You found a weak point?”

“Not exactly,” she said. “I’m kind of improvising.”

He frowned. “Is that some kind of joke?”

“I’ll explain later! Just get the guards’ attention.”

Crosshair shook his head. “Omega, that’s not a plan. If we try to escape and we fail, they’ll increase security around us. We won’t get another chance.”

Omega jumped up. “Just distract them!” She disappeared around the corner.

Crosshair sighed, rubbing his head. He hated this idea already. But there had to be a reason for her sudden determination after waiting for months to act. He stood and peered through the grate of his cell door. There was one stormtrooper down the hall near the control console. “Guards,” he called.

The trooper turned to him. Another one stepped up from an adjacent hall. They looked at each other and then one of them approached Crosshair.

“Unlock this cell,” Crosshair told him.

“What did you say?”

That was the voice. The one he was going to kill. Maybe now was his chance. He really hoped Omega knew what she was doing. “I was giving you an order.”

The guard scoffed. “This clone thinks he outranks us,” he called back to the other one. That trooper left his post to come join them too.

When Crosshair saw Omega sneak in toward the console behind them, he kept talking. “I do. And I’ll take your blaster too. I told you I would shoot you.”

“Oh yeah? How are you gonna do that?”

“You’ll see.”

At that moment, Omega accessed the controls, and his cell door flew open. Crosshair didn’t wait. He lunged forward with a shout. He got his hands on the blaster before the man recovered from his shock. A stun bolt shot toward the ceiling uselessly as they briefly struggled for control of the weapon. Crosshair wrested it from his grasp, flicked off the stun setting, and shot. He aimed point blank for the helmet, right between the eyes. He wished he had more time to be satisfied with how the man went limp, but he had to grab the body to use a shield against the other trooper’s shots. The dead man took the heat, and Crosshair aimed over his shoulder and fired three bolts until the last guard went down.

Omega peeked out from behind the console once the hall went quiet. “Nice work.”

“Didn’t have much choice,” Crosshair grumbled.

“You’re out of the cell, aren’t you?”

Crosshair huffed. He dragged the two bodies back into his cell. The one he’d shot in the face had a hole burned straight through his helmet and down into his skull. Crosshair kicked him in the side. “I warned you.”

After Crosshair came back out, Omega reactivated the door to close the bodies in. At first glance, nothing would seem amiss. They would only be noticed once other troopers came to patrol the hall and got close enough to look in the door. He held the stolen blaster in his left hand as he shook out his right one. A tremble traveled down the length of his arm. He scooped up the other guard’s blaster and tossed it to Omega. He guessed it was time to see if she really did know how to use it.

He followed her away from the detention block. She paused to look back sorrowfully at all the other clones in their cells, but then shook her head and kept going. She stopped before each corner as they went and peered around it before running on. When they came to a door, she slid her datapad into the slot on the wall.

“Well?” Crosshair said quietly. “Start talking.”

“I told you. We’re escaping.”

“Why now? What’s changed?”

“Nala Se said I had to. And I wasn’t going to leave without you. She told me to use her datapad to access the base and find a shuttle. We just need to get to a hangar.”

Crosshair’s grip tightened on his blaster. He didn’t like any of this. If Nala Se suddenly decided that Omega had to leave, after all this time, then something had gone wrong. But they had no time to stop and analyze it. They were out now, and two stormtroopers were dead. There was no turning back.

They ran through the door and down the next corridor to a second console where Omega fit her datapad into the slot. She rapidly tried to pull up schematics for the base. Neither of them knew which way to go to find a hangar. Crosshair put his back to the station, eyes scanning the four different hallway openings around him. He heard footsteps. He pressed himself closer to Omega and carefully moved so that the console stayed between him and the two approaching troopers.

“We’re not supposed to be on patrol until midwatch,” one of them grumbled as they walked by.

“Commander’s orders,” the other one said. “All hands on deck until the Emperor departs.”

Cold dread sank through Crosshair’s stomach. “The Emperor’s here?” he hissed once the troopers were out of earshot.

“What? I didn’t know!” Omega said.

“Another reason why this was not the day to wing an escape,” he said through clenched teeth. Nala Se insisted that Omega flee on the same day the Emperor arrived. That could not be a coincidence. The implication that there could be something about Omega that the Emperor wanted was terrifying. His right hand trembled more strongly than it ever had before. The blaster rattled in his grip.

“Thanks for the reminder, but I think we’re past that point,” Omega said. Her eyes fell to his hands and her tone grew gentler. “...Your hand’s getting worse, isn’t it?”

Crosshair swallowed. “It’s fine.”

She went back to searching the database. After a moment she said, “Uh oh.”

“What?”

“All shuttles have been grounded except the Emperor’s. We’ll have to steal it.”

Crosshair almost choked. Was this the kind of risk Hunter was teaching her to take? Things that would certainly get her killed? Clone Force 99 used to do the improbable, but even in their prime, they had some sense. “Impossible. It will be too well-guarded, even for me.”

She thought for a second and then gasped. “Wait! I know a shuttle we can use. It crash-landed outside the perimeter back when I first came here.”

“How does a crashed shuttle help us?”

“If the comms are still functioning, we can contact Hunter and the others!”

Crosshair tried not to let doubt show on his face beyond his typical frown. If Hunter was alive—and that was a big if—there was no guarantee he could get to Tantiss in time to scoop them up before they were recaptured or that he wouldn’t be shot down immediately upon entering orbit. Unless his old sergeant had scrounged together an army to rival the GAR, it wasn’t going to work. But maybe the shuttle itself would be salvageable. They only needed it to fly and have a working hyperdrive.

“How do we get outside?”

Omega grabbed her datapad again. “Follow me.”

Crosshair had no doubt that she had seen more of the facility than he had, but even if she was familiar with how the halls were typically patrolled, it sounded like the entire facility was on high alert today. He hoped wherever they were going was close. They waited around a corner until three troopers, a mouse droid, and a doctor passed by before running in the opposite direction. He kept his blaster always at the ready. He appreciated that Omega stuck the datapad under her arm and freed up her hands to do the same. In the stories she told him during her daily visits, she often mentioned going on “missions” with the men she thought were her brothers. Crosshair would have classified what she described as mercenary work more than actual missions, but regardless, maybe she had picked up a thing or two. She knew how to run quietly. She kept her eyes up. Despite the tense and dangerous situation, she stayed focused. She hadn’t reacted like he expected a normal child would to his handling of the two stormtroopers. She had clearly seen action before.

Omega activated an elevator with her datapad, and once they were inside, set it into another slot that shut off a scanner before it could run over them. They went down seven floors. When the doors opened, Crosshair immediately stunned the two troopers standing guard.

“We’re almost there,” Omega said.

“Where are we going?”

“The kennels.”

Crosshair was amazed that they only had to stun four more people before they got there. He supposed most of the security would be focused on the upper levels with the Emperor.

As soon as the door to the kennels slid open, Crosshair clocked the tall droid working inside. Omega must have expected it too because they fired their blasters at the same time. He hit the droid’s chassis. She hit its head. It crumpled in a heavy heap and Crosshair shot it one more time just for good measure.

He was impressed by the accuracy of her shot. He tried not to think too hard about the potential implication of her having natural talent for shooting. Later, if they made it out of here alive, he would.

Omega ran to the control panel and put the datapad in the empty space.

“Now what?” Crosshair asked, angling himself and his blaster toward the closed door.

“We’ll use the kennel chute. It leads outside, but it’s protected by a timed ray shield. We’ll have to move fast or we’ll be trapped.”

Crosshair glanced back at the cages set into the wall. Each one housed a muscular, four-legged creature with a fin-like crest on its head. They were all pawing at the doors to their containers and barking, spitting, and growling. These must be the lurca hounds she’d told him about. They smelled terrible. “Oh, I can hardly wait.”

“We can use Batcher’s empty kennel,” she said. She pushed a button on the datapad and a panel in the wall raised to reveal the empty cage. “As soon as I open the door, the timer will start, so be ready.”

“Omega.”

Crosshair flinched and turned back around to find the female clone doctor stepping into the room. He hadn’t heard her enter above all the barking. He almost squeezed the trigger of his blaster, but Omega grabbed his elbow.

“Don’t!”

He spared her a quick look, but did not lower his weapon.

“You should go back to your room,” Emerie said calmly.

“You mean her cell,” Crosshair growled.

“You’re not thinking clearly. Either of you. But it’s not too late. Come with me, and no one needs to know about this.” It was unsettling how much her voice sounded like an older version of Omega’s. Even if Omega was only half clone.

“I can’t do that,” Omega said. “I spent most of my life confined on Kamino. I won’t be trapped here too. You’re a clone like us, Emerie. Help us.”

Emerie met Crosshair’s eyes through red-tinted lenses. For a chilling moment, he felt sure that she must know the truth about Omega’s origins. Maybe she knew more than even Crosshair or Hunter did. Then the moment passed. He couldn’t tell all that from a simple look. It was just a hunch. He flicked his blaster back to stun. They needed Emerie out of the way, but he couldn’t kill her when Omega clearly had some kind of misguided attachment to her.

“Escape is not possible, Omega,” Emerie said. “This is for your own good.”

As soon as Crosshair saw the comm device in her hand, he shot. The stun ring struck her in the chest. She slumped to the floor with a groan. The comm rolled out of her grasp and Crosshair swore. It was blinking. She had already triggered some kind of alert.

“We have to go.”

Omega tapped one last command on the datapad before taking it back out of the slot. The empty kennel door lifted. She and Crosshair dashed into the chute. It wasn’t designed for a human adult to run through. He had to hunch over. Even the top of Omega’s head brushed the ceiling.

He was expecting a short passage, but the downhill tunnel turned out to be long and winding. It seemed all the longer as his shoulders and neck ached. “Where’s the exit?”

“I don’t know,” Omega gasped as she ran. “It’s not like I’ve ever been in here before. It leads out the base of the mountain; I guess it’s carved through all the rock.”

Suddenly a whooshing sounded at their backs. It was accompanied by a familiar red light that flooded the tunnel from behind.

“The shields aren’t supposed to activate yet!” Omega cried.

“They know we’re in here. Move faster!”

There were far more ray shields than seemed necessary. They activated in rapid succession every few feet. Crosshair could feel the heat building behind him. He strained his weak legs to run faster. Omega kept pace right beside him.

They came to the end of the chute abruptly. Instead of their feet pounding on duracrete, they sank into dirt and both of them tumbled forward into the jungle. Crosshair rolled down the short hill. His jumpsuit picked up every speck of mud—and, considering this was a passage meant for animals, probably more than mud—until he came to a stop on the forest floor. He brushed off his face as he sat up.

He quickly took stock of his surroundings. Omega was next to him and appeared unhurt. It was nighttime on the planet, not morning like he thought. Further proof that his sense of time had been destroyed while in his windowless cell. A single moon shone in a clear sky and lit up the huge and unfamiliar flora all around them. To his sensitive eyes, it might as well have been a cloudy day. He allowed himself one deep breath. The air smelled so different out here. It was the first time he’d felt wind against his skin for months.

“What direction is the crashed shuttle?” he asked as he stood up.

“Not sure,” Omega said. “Hemlock just said it went down in the wilderness.”

“Fantastic.”

Crosshair spun a circle. The mountain loomed at their backs. There was no pre-carved path through the jungle. While he hated to admit it, he would give a lot to have Hunter and his tracking skills with them right now. He heard the faint screech of a starship engine and looked up. A single shuttle departed from a hangar high above them. Luckily, it did not angle down to come looking for them, though he was sure they would be pursued soon. Instead, it arched up into the atmosphere. If it was leaving the planet, then that must be the direction ships arrived from as well. The downed shuttle would have come the same way.

“We’ll follow the flight path,” he said, already walking.

Omega hurried after him with her datapad. “Maybe this thing has sensors that can tell us if we get close.”

She explored the settings as they jogged. Crosshair pushed a massive frond out of his way and held it back while she came under it, oblivious.

“Watch where you’re going,” he said.

She lifted her eyes. “Right.”

They picked their way through the plants as quickly as they could. Crosshair’s limbs burned. He hadn’t used them this much since before he was a prisoner. His body wanted him to lay down and rest; he told his body to stow it. Omega was breathing hard before long too. He supposed she hadn’t had the opportunity for much exercise either. He kept their pace as fast as he dared. They couldn’t afford to tire themselves out yet, but they needed to put as much distance between themselves and the mountain as possible.

“I’m picking something up,” Omega said after a few minutes. Crosshair glanced at the datapad and saw a readout much like a ship’s proximity sensor flashing on the screen. “It could be the ship. That way.” She pointed a little to the left of their current trajectory.

Just then, Crosshair heard an unwelcome sound some distance behind them. They both paused to listen. It was vicious barking.

Crosshair’s hand shook. “Oh good. The killer hounds.” They kept going, this time flat-out running. He didn’t know much about the lurca hounds, but he assumed they had a sense of smell to rival Hunter’s. He and Omega didn’t have long before they were found.

“It should be just up ahead,” she said breathlessly, her eyes on the datapad.

Maybe that was why she didn’t see the massive tree root right in front of her. She tripped over it with a yelp, falling face-first into the dirt. Or maybe, Crosshair thought as he stopped to help her up, she couldn’t see well in the dark. Maybe her eyes weren’t as good as his. Because she wasn’t his daughter. Or maybe she was, and her enhancement just hadn’t set in yet. He handed her the dropped datapad.

“Thanks.”

A deep rumbling shook the trees around them and they both froze. A dark shape rose up from the ground only a few yards away. The growl coming from it was louder and throatier than the hounds. It was a massive creature easily four times the size of a human man. It was four-legged, but raised itself up onto its back two. Its body was covered with shaggy fur and its eyes shone in the dark.

“Crosshair?” Omega squeaked.

Crosshair didn’t think before putting himself between her and the beast. He could see its sharp teeth gleaming in the moonlight. He raised his blaster and backed up slowly. If they ran or if he shot at it, he might provoke its predatory instincts to charge them. A bit of drool dribbled from the creature’s maw.

Suddenly the barking came closer. Three lurca hounds burst out of the foliage. They jumped on the big animal. They bit and scratched as if they knew exactly how to fight it. The thing roared and flailed. It occurred to Crosshair that this might be the whole reason the Empire bothered keeping the hounds in the first place.

“Go!” he yelled. He and Omega ran while the creature was distracted and before the hounds’ keepers arrived. He let her lead, trusting her to follow the datapad’s sensors while he covered their flank. They ran until they were both out of breath and the din of battling animals was far behind them.

Crosshair’s legs felt like jelly by the time they at last came to an unnatural clearing in the jungle. There was the shuttle. It had taken out several trees on its way down and had obviously been sitting there for a long time. Any hope he had that it might still fly we quashed at once. It was overgrown with vines. The humidity made rust set in. It was half-buried in mud.

Omega didn’t slow. She ran straight up the open hatch. Her fingers flew over the damaged control panel with a familiarity that reminded Crosshair of Tech. To his surprise, the panel lit up. Power hummed dully through the ship. Crosshair stood at the base of the ramp and turned his back to her while she worked. He held his blaster at the ready, his eyes scanning the trees. If Hemlock sent any ships after them, they would detect the power surge. They only had a few minutes.

“Anything?” he called back to her after the clicking of buttons had gone on for a while and he hadn’t heard the comm connect.

Omega groaned and hit the console with her fist. “It’s not working! Comms are completely dead.”

Crosshair looked up. He could hear the roar of approaching ships. They must have been flying low, doing a sweep over the jungle. As Omega came back to join him, he motioned for her to get down. “They’re coming.”

They both fell back against the wall of the shuttle, partially hidden under the wing.

“I’m sorry,” Omega said. “I thought this would work.”

It was the first time during this whole escape attempt he had heard a break in her resolve. Strangely, it bolstered his own. He thought about the shuttles that would soon find them. They were isolated from the bulk of their forces out here. Though reinforcements would be easy to call in, they were at more of a disadvantage here than they would have been in the main hangar. The terrain worked in Crosshair and Omega’s favor. It would be easy to misdirect and distract the enemy with so many things to hide behind. If they could get the Imperials to empty their shuttles coming down to look for them, leaving only the pilot aboard, and Crosshair could keep them engaged…

Plan 72. He heard it in Tech’s voice. It would require them to split up temporarily, which he didn’t like, but it might be their only chance.

“You got us this far,” Crosshair said. “And we’re not done yet. Did they teach you plan 72?”

“Mm-hm. Tech had me memorize all the plans.”

Crosshair allowed himself the barest of smiles. “Of course he did. I’ll draw their fire. You get aboard and stun the pilot. Can you do that?”

Her fire returned. “Yes.”

He believed her.

Chapter 5

Chapter Text

Hemlock let them go. That was the only explanation. Even though Plan 72 was a success and Crosshair and Omega made it through the atmosphere on their stolen shuttle, the pursuing Imperial ships took out one of their engines on the way. Fighters were hot on their tail. All of the shuttle’s alerts blared at Crosshair, warning of the impending doom. Their deflector shields were failing. The Imperials only needed to take their shot. The prisoners had escaped Tantiss only to be blown apart in the cold of space.

Then, inexplicably, the fighters peeled away. Omega activated the hyperdrive. And just like that, they were gone. When they should have been dead. Crosshair sat in the pilot’s seat, staring at all the blinking error notifications across the dashboard. It didn’t make sense. Why weren’t they dead? Why had the attack been called off?

A new alarm shrieked and Crosshair had to put it out of his mind. He left Omega to frantically try to quell the chaos in the co*ckpit while he went down to the mainframe console to see if there was anything he could do from there.

In the end, they were thrown out of hyperspace and had to land on the nearest planet. Crash land. More crash than land, actually. Omega tried to control the ship’s descent as it embedded itself in the dirt of a desolate landscape, every bit of it sparking and smoking.

Crosshair rubbed his neck after they came to a stop. His whole body was going to hurt later, he was sure. He heard Omega coughing in the seat in front of him. She released the domed hatch above them and fresh, cold air pooled in. He squinted his eyes at the flickering screen in front of him. It kept working just long enough to show him a general map of their surroundings. Then it shorted out along with every other system on the ship.

“This will take forever to repair,” Omega said.

“No. There’s no time for that.” Something thumped against the back of his seat. Something whiney and stinky and annoyingly big. It was hard enough to believe that Omega had managed to find the one lurca hound she had domesticated right at the last minute, but he was even more surprised that in all the confusion of their escape, she’d managed to get it on board the shuttle too. He stood up, making way for the hound to slip around his chair and jump happily out of the ship.

Omega looked back at him with big, innocent eyes. “We need to get the nav-reader online to extract the coordinates to Tantiss for when we go back.”

Crosshair stared at her. “We’re not going back.”

“But we left the other prisoners behind! We had to get away now so that we could go back for them later.”

“The Empire is going to be searching for this ship and us. We have to move.” He grabbed the emergency pack from beneath the co-pilot’s seat. If the former owners of this transport followed Imperial protocol, it would have essentials like rations, water, basic medical supplies, and a regulation blaster inside. Slinging it over his shoulders, he jumped to the ground. He watched to make sure Omega could likewise climb out without difficulty. She didn’t seem to be hurt. She hugged her arms against the chill in the air.

They had landed on a cold planet. Great. Images of a white river of snow thundering down a mountainside flicked through his head. He could almost hear an ice vulture crying. He shook the thoughts away. This wasn’t Barton IV. It looked nothing like it. It was barren and cold, but there was no snow.

“I scanned a spaceport a few clicks east. We’ll start there.”

* * * * *

Omega kept talking about finding a way to contact Hunter, and Crosshair kept avoiding telling her that he was probably dead. Besides, they’d landed on an Imperial-occupied planet, as evidenced by the stormtroopers patrolling the grungy town they found themselves in. Long-range comms would be monitored. They would have to sneak aboard a passenger shuttle instead and try to get somewhere more remote. Possibly the Outer Rim, or hutt space. But even after pilfering new clothes from a laundry line and changing to better blend in with the locals, Omega refused to let him infiltrate the spaceport the way he was trained. He could have taken out half the troopers before they ever found him, and he and Omega would be on a shuttle while the port was still in chaos.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone if we don’t have to,” she said.

He couldn’t blame her for being more willing to shoot the Imperials on Tantiss that were complicit in the clones’ imprisonment than the ones stationed here on this backwater, but still. She was giving them more credit than they deserved. These were people who willingly signed up to serve the Empire. They had to know what they were getting into.

Omega tried to bribe the woman behind the spaceport front desk into letting them onto a shuttle without chain codes. Unsurprisingly, the woman demanded a huge amount of credits as compensation.

“Storming the spaceport would be easier than finding 30,000 credits,” Crosshair griped as they walked back into town.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Omega repeated.

“Don’t be naive. Every second we’re here, we’re at risk.”

“Then quit wasting time complaining.”

A door whooshed open beside them. Crosshair had not realized the building they stopped in front of was a parlor of some kind until music drifted out the doorway and two stormtroopers came sauntering out tossing credits happily in their hands. Omega craned her neck to look inside before the door closed again.

“I think I know how we can make some fast credits,” she said.

The borrowed outfit Crosshair was currently wearing included a kerchief that covered half of his face, so she could not see him frown. Instead, he put all his impatience into his voice. “Of course you do.”

She went straight into the parlor, so he had no choice but to follow her. Batcher trotted dutifully after them. The room beyond was poorly lit, dirty, and crowded. Patrons in patchy clothes sat around at tables and booths drinking and playing cards. Omega slid into an empty booth along the wall where she had a view of the whole place. Crosshair could at least commend her for seeking a good vantage point. He sat beside her and the hound sat in front of their table, co*cking her head to one side curiously as she took in all the unfamiliar scents.

There was a tall trandoshan man seated at one of the center tables. He was playing cards against a human opponent and had a pile of credits at his side.

“There,” Omega whispered. “I recognize the game they’re playing. I can play for money and win. I always win.”

“That’s your plan?” Crosshair asked incredulously. “You want to hustle someone?”

“I’ve done it before. And I prefer to think of it as a temporary requisition of funds.”

Crosshair raised an eyebrow. Who was teaching her things like that? He couldn’t imagine Hunter letting her into some sleazy bar just to make money, and even if Wrecker liked these kinds of games, he wasn’t good enough at them to teach her how to win. Tech was, but it also seemed unlikely that he had condoned such behavior. Omega had occasionally mentioned that the woman they used to run “missions” for owned a parlor, so perhaps she was to blame. “And bet with what?” he asked. “We don’t have anything.”

“They don’t know that.”

“And if you lose?”

“Well…I guess we’ll be in more trouble.”

That wasn’t comforting. As she scooted out of the booth, he let one hand fall to where he had put the backpack at his feet. He calculated how quickly he could get the blaster up if needed. The man playing the trandoshan must have lost, because he threw his hands up and left the table.

“Alright, alright,” called the trandoshan. “Who’s next?”

“I’ll give it a try.”

Crosshair had never heard Omega make her voice so fakely sweet.

The alien ran yellow, reptilian eyes over her and laughed. “This shouldn’t take long.”

He let Omega deal the cards. Crosshair’s palms sweated beneath his gloves. He kept one arm on his table and the other resting casually down near the backpack. He watched Omega’s face as the game began. She put up a calm and collected front, never letting her expression give away her hand. She placed the cards deliberately on her turn. In a matter of minutes, the game was over.

“Looks like I win,” she said, putting down her hand.

“Huh. Beginner’s luck,” the trandoshan said.

She pulled her small pile of winnings to her side of the table. “Let’s go again, then.”

They played three more games. Omega won each time. Her stack of credits grew. Other patrons stopped what they were doing to watch this little girl repeatedly beat a person who must have been a regular at the bar. The more eyes she drew, the tenser Crosshair felt. They needed to keep a low profile. This was the opposite. Batcher fell asleep on the floor. At least she understood how to be casual.

After the trandoshan lost another game, he groaned. “I’m gettin’ crushed here.”

“How about one more game?” Omega said. “My luck has to run out eventually.”

“Eh, that’s true. I get to deal this time.”

Crosshair wondered how many credits she had accumulated and if it would be enough. He wanted to get out of here sooner rather than later.

Just then, the front door opened to reveal a heavy-set man in an Imperial captain’s uniform. He was flanked by two stormtroopers. Just what they needed. Crosshair cleared his throat. Omega’s eyes tracked the Imperial as he stepped in, looked over the room, and then approached the bar. Crosshair couldn’t hear the words he exchanged with the droid serving drinks there. He caught Omega’s eyes. He made a small motion with his head toward the door. Whatever her current winnings, this needed to be the last game. She gave a minute nod.

She finished up in three moves.

“Not again!” The trandoshan cried. “Okay, okay. One more game.”

Omega picked up the bag she had stolen along with her clothes. “I think I’ll quit while I’m ahead.” She was about to scoop the credits into it when the Imperial approached her table.

“Leaving so soon?”

Crosshair’s hand started to shake. He squeezed it into a fist.

The officer frowned at the trandoshan. “You’re in my seat.”

The alien growled, but didn’t argue before getting up. Crosshair leaned forward as the man sat down across from Omega and took off his hat. He thought again about the blaster in his bag. Omega gave him a quick glance and flicked her hand in a motion to wait.

“So, you think you’re good at this game?” the Imperial said. Crosshair could hear through the fake nonchalance immediately. He had an ulterior motive. He might as well have broadcasted that on a public comm frequency.

Omega shrugged.

“Want to try against a, uh, real opponent? I insist.”

His voice left no room for argument. He picked up the cards, shuffled them, and began to deal. Crosshair stared at the back of his big, vulnerable head. He could take him out with one clean shot. He took note of where the stormtroopers had settled themselves a few feet away from the officer. He would have to shoot each of them next in quick succession. Not a problem. His eyes roamed around the room, trying to pick out anyone else who could be armed and see if he could tell just by looking if they might be friendly to the Empire.

The parlor had gone mostly silent as everyone watched the game. Only the flip of the cards and the occasional whispered comment from a patron disturbed the atmosphere. Crosshair tapped his fingers on the tabletop. He was acutely aware of how much time they were wasting. Their downed shuttle would be found soon, and it would not take someone with Hunter’s skills to surmise that the occupants were missing and to follow their tracks through the dirt toward the nearest settlement. Maybe that was the Imperial’s angle. Maybe he knew who they were and was stalling until backup arrived.

After a few minutes, Batcher must have caught a scent she didn’t like. She sat up, fixed her canine eyes on the officer’s back, and growled. Crosshair had to admire her judgment.

“Your mutt doesn’t seem to like me,” the officer commented.

“She’s harmless,” Omega said.

“She’s a distraction. Get rid of her.”

Omega looked at Crosshair. With a quick nod, she motioned to the door. Crosshair slid out of his booth and clicked his tongue at the hound. He was a little surprised she listened. So far, he had only seen her respond to Omega. As he ushered her toward the door, he heard the Imperial say, “Never seen you or your dad around here before.”

Crosshair had to think very hard about hitting the door release and all but shoving the hound outside. Your dad. He supposed he should thank his lucky stars that he was not recognizable as a clone. But all he could think about was how strange it sounded to be mistaken for Omega’s father. A mistake that may not even be a mistake. It was a logical assumption, of course. Kids usually went places with their parents. Regardless, he had no idea what he would do if it turned out to be true. He had to get them somewhere safe first. Then maybe he could think about it.

“We’re just passing through,” Omega said.

Crosshair had just gotten back to his table when the officer played a card that made the crowd gasp.

“Looks like the captain is heading towards a victory,” the droid at the bar announced.

“Eh, I’ll admit, you’re not bad,” the smug Imperial said. “But you seem to have misunderstood your enemy.”

A little smirk found Omega’s face. “Did I?” She put down three colorful cards at once.

A bigger exclamation traveled through the audience.

“The three Eastern Stars!” The droid cried. “That is game over.”

Crosshair stood, shouldering his backpack. Maybe now they could finally try and slip out of here.

Omega gestured to the stack of credits sitting by the officer. “I’ll take those 20,000 credits.”

The two stormtroopers closed in around the man. Crosshair already had the backpack half off again and was reaching for the blaster when the officer raised a hand to stay them.

“I concede,” he said. “You beat me fair and square.” He slid the credits over to Omega. “Nicely played.” He stood and put his hat back on.

“Thanks,” Omega said as she raked all of her winnings into her bag. She snapped it closed and then hurried over to Crosshair. He put a hand on her back and took one step for the door. They were almost free. If they could just—

“Now, hang on a minute,” the officer said. “We’re not done here. You haven’t paid your fine.”

Omega turned back to him. “What fine?”

“Gambling’s illegal in these parts.”

“What?” Crosshair spun around and would have gotten in his face if Omega didn’t grab his hand to hold him back.

“The law is the law,” the weasel said. “Now all you’ve got to do is pay the fine, and I’ll be on my way.”

So that was his angle. He let people break the law, and broke it himself, so that he could turn around and take his money right back. Crosshair had no doubt that not a single credit this man collected from fines would make its way to the local treasury. He was pocketing them all.

“How much?” Omega asked.

“10,000 credits. Unless you’d prefer to be arrested instead.”

Crosshair didn’t realize that he was stepping forward again until she squeezed the hand she was already holding. This absolute scum. Anyone could tell from a glance that the people in this town were poor. Suffering. No one had nice things, everything was in disrepair. No wonder they were desperate for bribes and gambled winnings. The Empire was stripping them of everything they had through exploitation. It made Crosshair feel sick to his stomach that he used to be a part of it.

Omega opened her bag. One of the stormtroopers came forward with a flat case. When he opened it and held it down to her, Crosshair could see golden bars glinting on the inside. Omega dropped two 5,000 credit bars into the stash.

“Excellent,” the captain said. “Consider your fine paid in full. Try and stay out of trouble.”

As he and the stormtroopers left the parlor, Crosshair tracked their every movement. Omega sighed once they were gone. “Let’s get out of here.”

Crosshair put a hand on her shoulder. “How many credits do we have left?”

She peeked in her bag and pushed the clinking contents around. “35,000. Enough for two tickets on the shuttle and a little extra.”

Crosshair nodded and they made their way outside. He half expected the Imperial to be waiting to ambush them when they stepped on to the street, but he was nowhere in sight. Maybe this would work after all. But the officer wasn’t the only one missing. Crosshair had left Batcher just here outside the door, but there was no sign of her now. He hadn’t really expected her to run off that quickly.

“Crosshair,” Omega said worriedly, “where’s Batcher?”

“Oy. You lookin’ for that hound?”

They both turned toward the young voice. Until this moment, Crosshair had overlooked the little boy standing outside the parlor selling fruit from a crate. He was covered in ragged clothes from head to toe. Not even his eyes were visible behind wide goggles.

“You know where she went?” Omega said.

“Sure do. But the answer’s gonna cost you 10,000 credits.”

Crosshair had had it. Even if the people’s desperation was understandable, that didn’t mean he had to let himself be blackmailed. He moved forward and loomed over the little boy with a scowl. “I’m getting tired of this.”

The boy held up his hands. “Okay, Okay! Five. But that’s my final offer.”

Crosshair was prepared to keep staring him down until he came up with another final offer, but Omega reached into her bag. She handed the boy one gold bar. Her kind heart was going to get her killed someday.

The boy pocketed the credits. “That Imperial officer and his troopers snatched the creature and headed for the cargo docks down that way.” He pointed to his left. “Nice doin’ business with ya!” With that, he ran off, leaving his crate of fruit. Crosshair wondered if it was ever his to begin with.

Omega began walking in the direction he indicated.

“Omega,” Crosshair said.

She turned back. “You heard him. Batcher’s this way.”

“And the spaceport is that way,” he gestured in the opposite direction. “Forget the hound. We have to get off this planet.”

“We never would have escaped without Batcher. I’m not leaving her.”

Crosshair shook his head. He had to get her to see reason. “You’re making a mistake. One animal is not worth risking your life over. We’ve already pushed our luck. If we don’t get out of here now, we’re going to be found.”

“I’m not abandoning her!” Omega tossed him her bag. “Take the credits. If you want to go, then go. I’ll find my own way.”

Crosshair could only watch her spin on her heel and dash off toward the cargo docks. He was frustrated by her unwillingness to cut her losses, but not overly surprised. She refused to give up on Batcher the same way she refused to give up on him on Tantiss. What shocked him was that she apparently thought he would actually leave her and go his own way. She didn’t think he would return the favor and refuse to leave her behind. He looked down at the bag in his hands. He could, technically. She’d won more than enough money for him to buy his way off-world. And if she wasn’t his daughter, he didn’t have any real obligation to her.

But it was out of the question. She was the only thing that kept him sane on Tantiss. She was the only reason he was free. Loyalty mattered. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised that she hadn’t learned that from Hunter. He would have to teach her himself. He ran after her.

He caught up to her just as she was climbing up a stack of crates that sat outside a tall fence surrounding a loading dock. He put the bag down at her feet, drawing her attention.

“Fine,” he said. “We’ll do this your way. But my skills are being wasted.”

She smiled. “Noted.”

He cupped his hands to give her a boost over the fence. With his help, she deftly scaled it and made it to the other side. He handed her the bag through the slats and then used his longer legs to climb over himself. He pulled the blaster from his backpack. They stayed low, slinking forward between large boxes. The landing field was littered with them. Many looked more like cages than crates. Strange squawks and growls sounded from several of them. There was a cargo ship docked nearby with its loading bay door open. Several people with electrostaffs pushed the crates toward it, occasionally poking at the wiggling contents of the cages with their weapons.

Crosshair and Omega paused beside a crate. She peered around it, squinting across the field. “There’s Batcher,” she said, pointing to a particular cage. Either her ears were better than Crosshair’s, or she was already especially attuned to pick out her pet’s whining above the rest. “Shouldn’t we free the other animals too?”

“Don’t push it.” He could understand her attachment to the hound, but anything else was just excessive.

They sneaked closer to the control panel where one worker seemed to be locking the cages remotely. Only one. Crosshair set his blaster to stun. They could take her out quietly. Just as he was prepared to get an arm around the panel to stun her from behind, someone said, “I thought you’d come searching for your mutt.”

Crosshair and Omega jumped up. The Imperial captain from earlier stood facing them a few yards away as though he’d been waiting for them for some time. He had four stormtroopers with him this time. “Yeah, unfortunately for you, Lau has a very strict pet policy.”

The dock workers stopped what they were doing to close in around them. They kept their staffs active and sparking. Crosshair ran his eyes over them all, trying to decide which posed the most threat. Probably the troopers with their blasters. He would shoot them first.

“No license means a hefty fine,” the Imperial said with a grin. He flicked a gold credit in his palm.

“How much this time?” Omega said.

“How about you give me all my money back? Credits won’t do any good when Hemlock shows up.”

Omega looked back at Crosshair with wide eyes. He knew it. He knew they were operating on borrowed time. But he wasn’t going quietly.

“Did you think I wouldn’t piece it together when I found that crashed shuttle?” the officer said. “Nothing gets by me. I run this town.” He put his credits away and pulled out a pistol instead. “So, hand over the credits and surrender.”

All of the stormtroopers raised their weapons, just waiting for the command to shoot. Crosshair was ready too.

Omega sighed. “Alright.” She threw the bag of credits heavily to the ground in front of her. Then over her shoulder, she said, “Let’s try things your way.”

“Finally.” Crosshair took the first shot. He took out one stormtrooper while Omega ducked into the control station. He should have taken out the second, but his hand chose that moment to start shaking again, making his shot go wide. He crouched behind the low wall next to Omega as blaster bolts peppered the place he had just been. He spared one second to glare accusingly at his hand and then went back to returning fire.

Omega went to work on the controls. Crosshair heard a very loud, collective click. It only took him a moment to realize that she had set all of the cage doors to release at once. Which was…brilliant, actually. Animals of all shapes and sizes streamed out over the cargo dock. There were large furry creatures and huge birds that ran on two spindly legs. The workers’ attention was immediately diverted as they started chasing them around. The troopers and the officer had to break their concentration on their targets to move out of the way of the stampede. Batcher came charging out among them. She used her bulky body to knock the Imperial officer off his feet. Crosshair was warming up to her, if he was honest.

The hound dashed over to Omega when the girl held out her hands to her.

“I’ll handle this,” Crosshair said. “Take Batcher and power up the ship.”

The open cargo ship was as good a one to steal as any. As Omega ran for the open ramp, staying low and with Batcher at her side, Crosshair laid down cover fire. He broke cover, scooped up the credits bag, and ran closer to the ship, hoping to keep their attention on himself. He ducked behind an open cage door just before a blaster bolt pinged off the metal. He held position there until he heard the ship’s engines starting up.

When he came around the cage to make a break for it, the captain was waiting for him. He had his blaster up, but was not paying attention to what lay behind him. Two enormous tentacles from some unknown beast shot out of a huge cage. The Imperial screeched as they wrapped fully around his fat body. Crosshair only watched long enough to see the man be dragged across the ground and disappear into the cage.

He had never sprinted into a ship and up into the co*ckpit so fast in his life. “Let’s—”

“Get out of here?” Omega finished for him, already pulling back on the yoke to bring them into the air. “Yeah, I’m on it.”

Crosshair sat rigidly in the co-pilot’s seat. “I hope your take-offs are better than your landings.”

“We’re about to find out.”

For a reason Crosshair couldn’t fathom, Batcher hoisted her front paws onto his lap and began happily licking his face. He tried to shove her off with one arm. Her breath smelled disgusting.

Omega hit the thrusters. Crosshair waited for cannons to fire at them as they rocketed into the sky, but the hits never came. Lau might have been too poorly guarded or the cargo dock could have been in too much disarray to mount any sort of defense. He still didn’t breathe properly until the clouds outside the viewport turned into stars and the stars turned into blue swirls as they lurched into hyperspace.

Omega sagged in her seat. “We made it.” Batcher nudged her limp hand and she petted her arched back. “We’re free.”

Crosshair wished it was that simple. “We’re not in the clear yet. The Empire will be able to track this vessel. We need to ditch it somewhere and find something else.”

Omega sat up straight again. “Right.”

Crosshair’s stomach growled. In all the excitement, he hadn’t realized that he had probably missed the one daily meal his body was used to. He couldn’t believe that only that morning he had been in his cell. He stood up and remembered how much his legs hurt from all the impromptu exercise. “I’ll go see what supplies are on board this thing.”

The deep cargo hold itself was empty. Luckily, no caged animals had been loaded yet. But inside a storage closet he found a case of pre-packaged biscuits and several pouches of water. He grabbed a few of each and went back to the co*ckpit.

Omega had just finished typing something into the ship’s text-based comm channel. “I just sent a coded transmission for Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo to meet us at a remote location. They’ll understand where I mean.”

Crosshair sat down slowly, dropping the food into his lap. There was no more putting it off. He had to get her to face reality. “Omega,” he started, “it’s—it’s been months. You don’t know if they’re still alive—”

“They’ll be there.” She wouldn’t look at him. She kept her eyes firmly on the viewport.

Crosshair kept quiet. Maybe it wasn’t worth dashing her hopes just yet. She would see for herself soon enough. “Here.” He handed her a pack of biscuits and a water. “Eat something.”

She munched on the food with less fervor than he would have liked to see. She had to be hungry too. She was exhausted. He could tell from her body language. Her eyelids drooped and she leaned heavily against the armrest. She pulled her knees up against her chest. Her face was filthy. His probably was too. She had dirt caked in her ponytail.

He would let them wait at this remote location for one standard hour as long as it was really as deserted as she claimed. Then, when Hunter didn’t show up, he would insist they head to the nearest non-Imperial world and obtain an unmarked transport. That list of planets was shrinking, but Crosshair knew of a few that had yet to be subjugated at the time he left the Empire. The 30,000 credits would help them barter passage, too. Maybe they could hide out in hutt space. Tatooine might be good. And once they were really off the Empire’s radar, then…

Then he didn’t know. Omega was his responsibility now, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that Hemlock wanted her for something specific. He had to keep her safe. Staying hidden would be a good start. They could hop from place to place if they had to. Take on new names. One thing he knew for certain: Omega was never going back to Tantiss. Neither of them were.

It took a few hours to get to Omega’s planned destination. They both fell asleep in their chairs. Even Batcher laid her head down and snoozed on the floor. As Crosshair expected, his whole body ached. It kept him from sleeping deeply. The pinging alert that they were about to exit hyperspace roused him immediately. Omega was a little slower to wake, but after rubbing her eyes, she put her hands back on the yoke and waited. They jolted back into space in front of an orange and beige planet. Crosshair recognized it. Ryloth.

He frowned. Ryloth wasn’t remote. It was heavily populated, and was under Imperial control. Omega had to know that. She must have been with the Batch when Crosshair almost caught them there so long ago. But she piloted the ship away from the planet itself and headed instead for its closest moon. It was a purplish-gray mass floating in space. If he remembered correctly, it had a thin, breathable atmosphere, but was otherwise uninhabitable. He supposed that might count as remote. It was too close to the Empire for comfort in his opinion, though.

Omega took them down closer to the surface of the moon, navigating the sharp peaks on the rock formations. She studied the viewport carefully, her body tense. Suddenly, as they came close to landing, she jumped up.

“Take over!” she cried. She barely waited until Crosshair had a hand on the wheel before she bolted out of the co*ckpit and headed for the ramp.

He squinted as he settled himself in the pilot’s chair. He saw at once the black mass parked on the moon’s surface that made her abandon her post.

Son of a bitch. It was the Havoc Marauder.

Chapter 6

Chapter Text

Hunter had never missed Tech more. He wished he had paid better attention all those times his brother would ramble while decrypting or rapidly sifting through data. Hunter used to believe that Tech would always be there to handle the technical side of the job, so there was no reason for him to learn how to do even half of it himself.

How stupid he’d been. He glanced again from the datapad to the console screen to be sure he’d covered everything. The data puck they received as payment from Roland Durand did not contain simple coordinates. It was pages and pages of Imperial comm logs. It took Hunter hours to read through the mostly useless information until he finally found the mention of Hemlock’s supposed lab coordinates. Tech would have known how to pinpoint it in seconds.

This was the best lead they’d had in a long time. It had taken days to infiltrate pyke territory and then track down the specific one the Durands had a grudge with, but Hunter and Wrecker had done it. They delivered the target alive as requested (which was more than could be said for the pykes they’d fought and killed on the way). They were no better than bounty hunters at this point. But this wasn’t for profit. This was for Omega.

Hunter glanced past Tech’s goggles and up into the dark gunner’s mount. He could see Lula silhouetted against the blue swirl of hyperspace through the window. The doll had remained untouched since Omega was taken, slumped listlessly against the wall. No one had dared to move it.

She had been gone for one hundred and sixty-five days. Hunter kept a mental tally. Every day that he woke up to Omega’s absence, he added another tick to it. Every day his heart became harder, colder. Every day he functioned more and more on auto-pilot as he sank gradually down into a deep, dark sea.

Wrecker approached him softly. He had been doing that a lot lately. He must have known that when Hunter was stressed, his senses tended to overload more easily.

“Echo said he and Rex need two rotations before they can meet us at the coordinates,” he said, leaning against the wall.

Hunter rubbed the bridge between his nose with two fingers. Of course. He knew this would happen if Echo went off to do other things. He wouldn’t be there when they needed him. “That’s not good enough.” He stood up to head for the co*ckpit. “We’re going now.”

Wrecker put one big hand on his shoulder. “Hunter, the last time we stormed an Imperial base without backup, not all of us made it out.”

A twinge of grief tried to surface in Hunter’s chest, but he was so numb at this point, he easily blocked it out. He continued to the pilot’s chair. The ship alerted him that they were about to exit hyperspace. He wasn’t going to just sit around in orbit for two days waiting for Echo to show up. “Omega’s been waiting for us a long time, Wrecker,” he said. “I’m not making her wait another day.”

Provided this actually was the location of Hemlock’s base and provided she was actually here. After so many failed attempts, Hunter was reluctant to let himself hope.

They came out of hyperspace in front of a sickly green-colored planet. The entire sphere looked like it was covered with mold. There were no ships or orbital defenses. Not a good sign for an active Imperial base, but maybe the Marauder just hadn’t been detected yet. Hunter brought them down into the cloudy atmosphere. They flew over dense jungle until he could find a spot close to their destination that was big enough to land.

After powering down the ship, Hunter scooped up the datapad containing the coordinates and led the way outside. He was used to being assaulted by unfamiliar smells when setting foot on a new world and already had his helmet on, but Wrecker hadn’t pulled his over his face yet.

“Ugh!” he complained when he reached the ground. “It smells like rancid jotaz out here.”

It was definitely one of the least welcoming environments Hunter had ever been in. The vegetation was so thick, there was no clear path for them to traverse. Broad vines hung from every towering tree. The air was heavy and putrid. It was an odd place to build a science lab. It would be well-hidden here, if nothing else.

Hunter spun a slow circle with the datapad. “There’s nothing on the scanner. The Empire could be jamming our sensors.” Or, there could be nothing here to find. But he wasn’t going to assume that without looking first.

He picked his way through the foliage, consulting the scanner and keeping his senses alert for the kind of electromagnetic pulses that an operating base would emit in abundance. Wrecker followed him dutifully. The scanner didn’t yield much, but after a few minutes, Hunter smelled a shift in the air. There was a large, open area somewhere nearby with better circulation. An area big enough for a facility. He picked up his pace. The jungle came to an abrupt stop at the edge of a cliff. When Hunter approached it, he could see a number of buildings in a valley down below them.

Buildings that were clearly abandoned. They were aggressively overgrown with plants. No electric signals came from them. Many of the ceilings had crumbled as though struck from above. He fished out his macrobinoculars to have a closer look. The details were even worse. Most of the facility was in shambles. “Oh no.”

Wrecker came up beside him. “Woah. That’s Hemlock’s lab?”

Hunter lowered his macrobinoculars. “They destroyed it. Another orbital bombardment.”

“But, Omega… I-if she was here…” The panic built in Wrecker’s voice.

Hunter put a hand to his chest before he could finish that thought. Before he could panic too. “We don’t know if she was. The Durand’s intel could be wrong. Let’s get down there and check it out.”

He turned and jogged away from the ledge, looking for a way down. If he kept his body moving, maybe he wouldn’t think about the Empire deciding Omega was no longer an asset and locking her inside a cell while they blew up a building around her. He wouldn’t think about her surviving the bombardment only to starve to death, or suffocate under rubble. He wouldn’t think about the possibility that they would only find her bones down there. He focused on running and tracking and nothing else.

There were a lot of sounds and smells to filter through in the landscape, but as he went, something suddenly stood out against the trill of insects. He motioned for Wrecker to stop. He stood still and listened. Human heartbeats. Two of them. One on each side of their position.

“We’re not alone.” He raised his blaster. Maybe there were some Imperials left on this planet after all.

Two figures jumped from behind trees on either side of them. “Freeze! Drop your weapons!”

Hunter only just avoided shooting on sight. He registered what he was looking at right before his finger squeezed the trigger of his blaster.

They were boys. Kids, probably in their early teens. Only a little older than Omega. They were dirty, bore a few scars, and dressed in threadbare clothes. Each one brandished a staff obviously made from a local tree branch.

There was a moment of silence, and the Wrecker laughed. “Blaster beats stick, kid.”

Hunter took in the round faces, brown eyes, and dark hair. He’d seen them a thousand times before. He’d seen it in the mirror, long ago. “Wrecker…they’re regs.”

“And who are you?” one of the boys demanded, not relaxing his fighting stance. Hunter felt like he had gone back in time and was hearing Crosshair gripe at him during training.

He and Wrecker took off their helmets. “We’re clones,” Hunter said gently. “Same as you.”

“You don’t look like clones.”

“They must be 99’s,” the other boy said. “Defectives.”

Wrecker smiled. “Defective and effective!”

“What are you two doing out here?” Hunter asked. The fact that they were here all alone, and clearly had been for a while, didn’t point to anything good. He had never thought much about the cadets left on Kamino after the war ended. He assumed the Empire would use them for something, but abandoning them in the wilderness?

“What does it look like?” the first boy said. “Surviving. Or trying to. No thanks to the Empire.”

The second boy raised his stick. “They send you to finish us off?”

Wrecker gestured to his weathered armor. “Do we look like we’re with the Empire?”

“Then what do you want?”

“We’re looking for a young girl,” Hunter said. “She’s…” He swallowed. He couldn’t think of a reason not to tell these kids the truth. They weren’t enemies, even if they were skittish and understandably defensive. “She’s my daughter. We think she was sent to the lab here.”

The first boy raised his eyebrows. “You have a daughter?”

“I do.”

“Never saw anyone like that, but Mox might know about her.”

The second boy shook his head. “He won’t talk to them.”

Hunter took a step toward him. “Please, we have to find her. She’s everything to me. We’ve been looking for so long.”

The young clone narrowed his eyes, considering him. “I didn’t know clones could have kids.”

“Not many of us can. But it’s possible.”

“Hm.” He lowered his poor excuse for a weapon. “Alright. We’ll see what Mox says. Stick to the trail, and follow our steps. And don’t touch the vines.”

Wrecker touched the vines. Which was how they discovered that due to some kind of sick genetic experimentation that happened here, the vines growing on this planet were alive. Alive in that they moved on their own, attacked anything that touched them, and tried to crush Wrecker. When Hunter cut him free, they wriggled away like snakes. It wasn’t the most unsettling thing he had ever seen, but it was close. The boys called them slither vines. They said the Empire had been trying to make them into a weapon until they lost control, resulting in their abandonment and destruction of their own facility.

The cadets, who were named Stak and Deke, escaped just before that happened. They had been held prisoner there for over a year prior to that. The Empire took samples of their blood daily. When Hunter asked why, they said they didn’t know. His mind immediately provided him with an image of Hemlock jabbing Omega with needles and sucking her blood into a tube.

The boys took them to a small cave high up on a rocky crag. Another cadet, the one they called Mox, was already there. He poked at a small fire with the broken end of a double-headed spear. He stood up when Hunter and Wrecker came inside. Though he was the same age and size as the others, Hunter got the impression he was the ringleader of this little band.

“Who are they?”

“Clones,” Stak said. “We found them by the overlook.”

Hunter and Wrecker looked around at the sparse trappings. Three beds made of dried grass lined the cave walls. There were old crates here and there. Hunter didn’t know if they held any supplies or if they served as chairs. One open one was filled with drinking water. Another was half full of small yellow fruits.

“Quite a place you got here,” Wrecker said.

“What do you want?” Mox said with a frown.

“We’re looking for a young girl,” Hunter told him. “She was taken by an Imperial named Hemlock. Her name’s Omega.”

“Never saw a girl around the lab,” Mox said, sitting back down on a crate. “But I know Hemlock. He was in charge until things changed. One day, the Imperials started packing up and shipped out. So we made our move and escaped.”

“We were the only ones who made it out before the orbital bombardment,” Deke said.

“Even the clone troopers left us to die,” Stak added. “Said they were following orders.”

Hunter frowned at the thought of those damned inhibitor chips making the regs abandon a bunch of children. Their own little brothers. “Wait,” he said, realization dawning. “Do you mean they left the other prisoners, other cadets, to die in the bombardment?”

“No, we got away as they were trying to transfer us to a shuttle to go off-world,” Deke said. “But the troopers didn’t care that all the prisoners they were transporting were young clones. They didn’t care that some of us had already died in the facility after medical testing and were probably being taken somewhere else just to die there instead.”

“We get it,” Wrecker said. “We’ve lost people too.”

Hunter took a step forward. “We can take you to someplace safe. You don’t have to stay here. But we need to find out if Omega was here or where Hemlock took her. There has to be some intel in that base.” It was the only outcome he would accept. Omega wasn’t here. If she ever was, then she had been transferred somewhere else with the other prisoners. They weren’t bringing her home today. But there might be a vital clue left that could tell them where she went. This couldn’t all be for nothing.

“One of the control room panels was still intact during our last scout,” Deke said. “I tried to use it to send a signal, but there was no power.”

“Can you take us there?”

Stak shook his head. “No way! That area is covered in slither vines. It’s toxic.”

“Stak’s right,” Mox said. “Going near those ruins is a suicide mission. You’re on your own.”

“They need help, Mox,” Deke protested. “I’ll go with them.” He reached into one of the crates and pulled out an atmospheric breather mask that had clearly seen better days. Hunter hoped it was still fully functional.

“You know the risks of going down there,” Stak warned.

Deke wasn’t deterred. He marched out of the cave and Hunter and Wrecker followed. Hunter decided right then that nothing was going to happen to these boys. They were jaded by their experiences, but just as innocent as Omega. He was going to get them out of here and let them be kids again. They’d been through enough.

It was dark as they made their way back to the Marauder to retrieve Gonky. Having a walking battery droid came in handy, even if it wouldn’t fully charge. Hunter and Wrecker kept their flashlights and knives at the ready. Now that they knew what the slither vines looked like, they were able to avoid them.

As they went, Deke asked, “This girl you’re looking for, your daughter…how old is she?”

Hunter’s chest squeezed. He hated thinking about how old Omega was getting and how much she must be growing in his absence. “She’s almost six. But she ages like a clone, so she’s just a little younger than you.”

“How long has she been gone?”

One hundred and sixty-five days. Just shy of six months. When he finally saw her again, she would look a year older than when he lost her. “Too long,” he said. “But we’re not giving up.”

“I wish the other clones felt that way about us. You may be defective CT’s, but at least you’re loyal. What was your rank before the war ended?”

“We were special ops. I was my squad’s sergeant.”

He perked up. “You were a sergeant? Did you know Sergeant Vik? He was training my year of cadets before we were all shipped off Kamino. I—I always wondered what happened to him. If he’s still alive.”

Hunter thought for a moment. “Sorry kid, doesn’t ring a bell. We were an experimental unit. We didn’t spend a lot of time with regular clones.”

The disappointment on his face bothered Hunter more than he was expecting. He wondered if this Vik was more to these boys than just a trainer. Maybe he could ask Rex if he knew what happened to him.

* * * * *

Two hours later, Hunter found himself back on the Marauder with three excited boys and a datapad full of the fragmented records they were able to scavenge from the console in the ruined facility. There was a brief second, when Hunter, Wrecker, and Deke were surrounded by the enormous tentacles of a plant aberration emerging from toxic sludge and suddenly light appeared through the smashed roof above them, that he saw the Marauder descending over them and thought Tech had come to their rescue. It was a knee-jerk reaction. When the ship tipped precariously from side to side under the guidance of an unpracticed hand, he realized that the other cadets had had a change of heart and came after them (even if that rescue involved temporarily commandeering their ship). They were instrumental in their escape. They wouldn’t have been able to blow up the monster trying to eat them or get away without the kids’ help.

It was a hard-won victory. But you would never know it by looking at the boys. They crammed into the co*ckpit and animatedly went over every detail of their adventure with Wrecker, who smiled and egged them on. They were bred for combat. Of course they thrived on action. Though it seemed a distant memory, Hunter could remember being the same way at their age.

He had just finished combing through the new data. It was less than he’d hoped for. It indicated a sector of space where the ASD relocated its base of operations, but not a specific planet. That left so many options. He gave himself a moment to shut his eyes and lean back in his chair. This was yet another broad piece to a never ending puzzle. He was never going to find Omega at this rate. He could spend years scouring every inch of that sector. It wasn’t exactly a dead end, but it wasn’t an answer either.

Wrecker’s laugh rose from the co*ckpit. It had been a while since Hunter heard him offer more than a chuckle. He opened his eyes and saw him lightly fist bump one of the kids on the shoulder. He used to do that with Omega sometimes.

Hunter’s stomach twisted. He knew where they had to go next. In fact, they were already on their way. But he wasn’t looking forward to it. He fully intended to get the boys to safety, and the only safe place he knew of for clones was Pabu. Shep would make sure they were taken care of. The residents would step up and get them situated. But there was a reason Hunter hadn’t returned to Pabu since Omega had been taken. Every bit of it reminded him of her. The sound of the waves where he wanted to collect seashells with her. The flicker of lights coming on in the evening where he had hoped to build their own house and maybe, just maybe, put down roots. All the parents happily raising their kids like he wanted to do. He was sure if he set one foot on Pabu while Omega was still missing, he’d break down.

The young clones deserved that life too, though. And he would give it to them if he could. They may not have parents, but they had each other. Just like Hunter always had his brothers. They would be fine.

He stood and came into the co*ckpit. “I’ve been going over the data,” he said. “Looks like Hemlock transferred his entire base of operations to another location. His experiments too.”

“Did the intel say where he went?” Mox asked.

Hunter tried not to let his discouragement affect his voice. “There was a mention of a sector, but nothing more. It’s a lead, but we’ve got a lot of space to cover.”

“Well, if that’s where Omega is, then that’s where we’re going,” Wrecker said decidedly. Hunter didn’t know if it was for the kids’ benefit or for his.

“We’ll drop you three off somewhere safe,” Hunter told the boys.

Mox looked usure. “Where?”

“An island. There are good people there. They’ll take care of you.”

The other boys watched Mox as if taking their cues on how they should react from him. Mox dropped his eyes to the floor. “We’re cadets without an army. I don’t know where we fit anymore.”

“You have time to figure it out,” Hunter said, going for encouraging. “Make your own path. Be something other than a soldier.”

That got all of them to look straight at him. “What about you?” Mox asked.

“Our mission is not over yet.”

Wrecker must have read the thinly veiled despair in his tone. He stood and put his hand on Hunter’s upper back in silent support. Their mission might never be over. They might spend the rest of their lives looking for Omega. Especially if the journey kept taking them to dangerous places like it did today. They might die before they found her. But they wouldn’t stop. If that was the cost of the search, then they were both prepared to pay it.

Mox must have understood some of the subtext because his face fell. He raised one arm, bent at the elbow, and offered his hand to Hunter. It was a traditional clone greeting, but also a recognition of brotherhood. Sometimes, clones did it before going into battle to express solidarity without having to speak a word. Hunter clasped his hand. No matter how hard returning to Pabu was going to be for him, he did not regret his decision to take these kids to their new home. The entire trip to the planet of killer plants had been worth it just for that.

Wrecker offered the boys ration bars and hydration packs during their remaining time in hyperspace. They each took a turn cleaning up in the ‘fresher, and two of them fell asleep on racks for a short time. They were all awake and watched wide-eyed when Hunter brought them out of hyperspace and took them toward the lush blue and green planet.

Hunter tried to focus on the task at hand when the island of Pabu came into view, sticking out of the ocean as a beacon of color and light. He ignored the constricting of this throat when he brought the Marauder down past the tower of the Archium and landed in the upper courtyard.

“It’s amazing,” Deke said, taking in the vibrant blue sky.

“Wait ‘til you see it up close!” Wrecker said. He ushered the boys outside.

Hunter took his time shutting down the ship. He could smell the ocean breeze drifting in through the open door. He used to love the smell, but now it made him sick to his stomach. He tried to convince himself to move. He should get up, go out there, and find Shep. He needed to explain about the boys and see if he could arrange accommodations for them.

The seconds ticked by, and Hunter didn’t move. Somewhere outside, probably elsewhere in the courtyard, he heard a familiar voice cry, “Wrecker!” It was the Hazard girl, Lyana. She asked something in a quieter volume that Hunter chose not to listen to.

“Not yet,” Wrecker said in response. “We’re still lookin’. We’ve got a new lead.”

Hunter’s legs were stiff. He stared out the viewport of the ship at the familiar weeping maya tree. It was blooming with pink flowers. He couldn’t remember there being flowers the last time he was here, months ago. More people were talking. It sounded like a small crowd was gathering to welcome the new arrivals. Hunter should really be out there.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t step back into a place that was still peaceful and unchanged when his whole world had fallen to pieces.

Quiet, heavy footsteps eased up the ramp. They belonged to someone big, but the gait didn’t sound like Wrecker’s. Hunter realized who it must be just before they came into the co*ckpit.

“It’s so good to have you back,” Shep said. “I see you’ve brought us some more wayward clones in need of refuge.”

Hunter cleared his throat. He spun his chair to face Pabu’s mayor. “Hello, Shep. The boys were abandoned by the Empire. If you could find a place for them to stay, I would be in your debt.”

“Of course. They’ll be welcome. We’ll find somewhere for them in no time.”

“Thank you. I knew they’d be safe here.”

Shep lowered himself into the co-pilot’s seat. He stayed quiet for a moment. “Phee told us about your brother. And your daughter. We receive updates from her now and then. Any news on your search?”

Hunter’s eyes burned. “We’ve…got a direction. I’ll analyze the sector and determine the best place to try first. We won’t be staying here long. I just wanted to make sure the kids would be okay.”

Shep nodded. “Phee hasn’t come around much lately. I think she is dealing with her sadness by staying on the move. She’s acquired more ‘ancient wonders’ for the Archium in the last five months than ever before. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you all too. I know what it’s like to lose loved ones, but not a child. Just know that if you ever need anything, I’ll be happy to help.”

“Thank you,” Hunter managed around the lump in his throat. “I appreciate that.”

Shep stood and patted his shoulder. He gave him a look that could only be described as one father recognizing another’s pain, and then left.

Hunter stared down at his hands for a while, feeling empty. Eventually, he went back to the console to start pouring through star charts of the sector where Hemlock was hiding. It would take him a while to catalog the planets and determine where they should go next. He would let Wrecker take care of the cadets in the meantime. He was just going to accept the fact that he was too cowardly to set foot outside the ship for now.

He had made a list of eighteen likely planets when the ship’s comm beeped with an incoming message. Maybe it was from Phee. They hadn’t heard from her in over a week; maybe she had intel he could add to their new lead.

He went back to the co*ckpit and discovered the message was text-only, and it was encoded. Strange. Maybe it was Echo. Only he or Rex would be sending coded transmissions, and only if they weren’t in a secure location. Hunter plugged Tech’s datapad into the mainframe. He ran the decryption program and read the words that scrolled across the screen.

He reread them. Then he reread them again. His mouth went dry.

Got away. Plan 45. The place where we first met Hera. Havoc 5.

“Wrecker.” The word came out softly even though he was alone in the ship. He stood on shaky legs. Then he ran. He stopped at the open door. He could see Wrecker across the sunny courtyard talking with Shep, the kids, Lyana, and a Pantoran woman.

“Wrecker!”

Everyone in the vicinity looked his way. He must have shouted it louder than he realized. Wrecker took one look at him and quickly jogged over.

“What’s wrong?”

Hunter held out the datapad. Wrecker stepped up the ramp and took it. His eyes blew wide when he read the message. “This came to the ship?”

“Just now.”

Wrecker pursed his lips. “Who else knows her call sign?”

“Only our squad. No one else would know Plan 45 either.”

“Plan 45. She’s asking for a pick up. On the Ryloth moon.”

Hunter nodded. His heart was pounding.

Wrecker shifted his weight from foot to foot. “It could be a trap. They could have…gotten the information out of her.”

“I don’t care,” Hunter said. “We’re going.”

“Of course we are.” He ran back to say something to Shep. Hunter dashed back inside to start up the ship. Wrecker returned and they were airborne in minutes. Hunter plugged in the coordinates for Ryloth with trembling fingers. He couldn’t think straight. His pulse was roaring in his ears. When Wrecker saw him struggling with the controls, he silently nudged him out of his chair and took over.

Hunter couldn’t sit down. He paced the length of the ship. Wrecker was right. This could be a trap. The Empire might be trying to lure them in to capture or kill them using the one thing they knew the Batch would come for no matter what. Hemlock could have done things to Omega to get enough information out of her to concoct a message that sounded like it came from her. They could have tortured her. The thought made Hunter want to pull his hair out. They could have hurt her until she told them their comm frequency, her call sign, and a likely location.

Or it could be true. She might have gotten away. She might need a pick up. She might be waiting for them right now. Hunter was going to throw up. He looked at the chronometer once they were in hyperspace. The trip would take five hours.

It was the longest five hours of his life.

Chapter 7

Chapter Text

Though they didn’t talk about it, Hunter knew both he and Wrecker were mentally preparing themselves for what they might find when they got to the Ryloth moon. If Omega’s message was actually a trap set by the Empire, there could be troops waiting to ambush them. If it was legitimate, anything might have happened to her between now and the time she sent it. She might have gotten a transmission through and then been caught. They might arrive at the rendezvous only to wait for hours and realize she wasn’t coming.

Or she could have actually escaped. Hunter’s daughter might actually be there.

He considered sending a return message, but it was risky. Even if he could figure out how to decode the frequency the transmission came from, if it was actually from the Empire, all a response would accomplish was confirming that their ploy worked. It would give their enemies more time to prepare their attack. The best thing he and Wrecker could do was get to the moon as discreetly as possible and see for themselves what was there.

He did send a message to Echo, though. He didn’t bother hailing him, as Echo and Rex were so often in places where they had to go radio silent, but he sent a text transmission letting him know about the message they received and where they were going. That way, if something went wrong, at least someone would be aware. If Omega really was on the Ryloth moon and Echo missed out on seeing her, then that was his own fault.

It had been a while—since before they captured the pyke—that Hunter had slept, but he couldn’t imagine doing it now. Not when he was so wired, all of his nerves on edge. And eating was out of the question, even though he felt weak. His stomach was in knots. Considering that Wrecker didn’t stop fidgeting during the entire trip, he probably wasn’t doing much better.

It seemed like a lifetime before the ship’s alert beeped and they dropped out of hyperspace. Ryloth and its moons loomed before them. Wrecker was piloting. He took them toward the moon closest to the planet; the big purple one where they delivered weapons to the freedom fighters, including Hera, so long ago. Hunter monitored the sensors from the co-pilot’s chair.

“No ships on the scope,” he said warily. They headed toward the exact coordinates where the past delivery took place, and still their sensors provided nothing. There were no Imperial ships waiting for them, so unless soldiers had been dropped off and left there, it wasn’t an ambush.

Hunter could see the flat field among the rock formations where they would land. They circled it, looking. There was nothing there. No Empire, and no Omega.

“Maybe we got here first,” Wrecker said. “We don’t know where she was when she contacted us.”

Hunter nodded. If she had been recaptured right as it seemed like she would get away, he didn’t know what he would do. If Tech were here, he could have figured out exactly where her message came from and traced it to its source. Then maybe they would know where she was and how to go after her.

Wrecker brought the ship down to the moon’s surface, stirring up a cloud of gray dust. Neither of them moved. Hunter looked back and forth between their sensors and the stars. The quiet was deafening. Wrecker shifted in his seat. They waited.

Thirty standard minutes crawled by. Wrecker went outside to do a perimeter sweep and came back with nothing to report. Hunter reread Omega’s message. This was the exact place they first met Hera. Surely she meant here on this moon and not in the Syndulla girl’s hideout on Ryloth, where they connected with her later.

Hunter and Wrecker both jumped when the proximity alert sounded.

“One ship inbound,” Hunter said.

Wrecker squinted out the viewport. “I think I see it. Imperial?”

Hunter, with his more sensitive eyesight, picked out the two lights shining off the approaching dot in the sky. “Maybe. Shut us down.”

Even though it was most likely already too late, Wrecker powered down every system still running on the ship so that they wouldn’t be detectable. The unknown ship eased forward through space, heading straight for them.

“It’s a freighter,” Hunter said when it came closer. “Imperial, but for cargo. I can’t see any guns.”

Wrecker swallowed. “Do you think…?”

Hunter almost didn’t want to allow the hope building inside him. He’d been let down so many times. It seemed too good to be true.

The ship landed in the field a few dozen yards away from them. The ramp lowered.

And a little blonde figure ran out, silhouetted by lights from behind.

“Ha!” Wrecker whooped. He was up and running at once.

Hunter tried to stand. His knees lost their strength. He collapsed onto the floor of the co*ckpit as his head spun. He clutched the chair for support and breathed deep.

“Now there’s a sight!” he heard Wrecker cry.

“Wrecker!”

Omega’s voice. She was here. After all those months. All that time not knowing if she was still alive, not knowing what was being done to her. She was really, truly here. His daughter found him. Nothing he did mattered in the end. She rescued herself.

He got his feet underneath him. He needed to pull it together. He could already hear her crying as she hugged Wrecker. Hunter had to be her strength. She didn’t need a father who was falling apart. She needed him to hold together so that she was free to break down if she wanted to. He suddenly wondered what he looked like. He hadn’t slept or eaten or even bathed in a while. Would she be able to tell how poorly he’d been taking care of himself?

He would have to do as-is. He couldn’t wait another second. He went to the door. Wrecker was just letting go of Omega, wiping his face. “We crossed the galaxy four times lookin’ for you,” he said.

“Five,” Hunter corrected.

Omega looked over Wrecker’s shoulder. She met his eyes.

“But you’re the one who found us.” He didn’t know how he got the words out through a throat that was closing up. He hoped they conveyed how proud he was.

He could see the moment she broke. Her lower lip wobbled. A sob escaped her lips as she ran for him full tilt. Hunter didn’t remember getting to the bottom of the ramp. All he knew was that he was suddenly there, kneeling down with his arms held out.

And then there she was. She crashed into him, locking her arms around his neck. She buried her face in his shoulder and wailed into his ear. Hunter crushed her against him. Every part of him felt alive for the first time in months. He kissed the side of her head, probably too roughly.

“I love you,” he whispered, massaging the back of her head with one hand. “I love you, I love you.” He wanted to say it one hundred and sixty-six times. One for each day she had been gone.

Rolling sobs heaved through her little chest. One of her hands gripped his armor and the other clutched a handful of his hair. He rocked his body gently forward and back.

“It’s okay. You’re okay now.” Though he felt a single tear trickle down his cheek, her distress only increased his resolve to be her rock. He kissed her again.

Pulling in a ragged breath, she choked out one word against his shoulder. “Dad.”

Hunter’s heart swelled. He squeezed her tighter. “My baby. Ner ad’ika. Ner cyar'ika. I missed you so much. We never stopped searching.” He needed her to know that last part especially. That his colossal failure to find her was not for lack of trying.

“I know you didn’t,” she mumbled. She cried for another minute, and Hunter held her secure against him. He listened to the glorious sound of her heartbeat strumming a healthy rhythm. He took in her scent. It was different now; she smelled like both dirt and medical cleaning supplies, but underneath it all was still her own signature scent. The relief coursing through his veins bordered on euphoric. She was here. Wrecker came closer to them, but didn’t interrupt.

Finally, Omega got a hold of herself and leaned back. Hunter moved his hands to cup her face, getting a good look at her for the first time. Her cheeks were streaked with dirt except for the two lines washed clean by tears. Her hair was longer. She had it pulled back into a little ponytail. And she was bigger. At least an inch taller than he remembered. Her face was lean, free of any remaining baby fat. She wore an ill-fitting cold weather outfit probably made for a child older than her. She was pale and looked exhausted in more ways than just her puffy red eyes.

She glanced behind him. “Echo?”

“He’s fine,” He said as he wiped her tears with his thumbs. “He’s with Rex.” He moved his hands to her shoulders. He had a million questions, but one needed to be answered before anything else. “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head, swiping under her nose with one hand. “No. I’m okay.”

Then, the next most pressing question. “How did you escape?”

She smiled a little as she looked down. “I had help.”

A sound caught Hunter’s ears. Until that moment, he had been focused solely on her vital signs. He had completely missed that there was another heartbeat on the cargo ship. Two, actually, although one didn’t sound human. Hesitant footsteps clattered down the ramp.

Hunter stood up. In clothes similar to Omega’s and looking just as tired and dirty, the man who Hunter used to call a brother, the man who might actually be Omega’s biological father, stood there looking at them pensively. Crosshair. The last person Hunter expected to see.

If he thought about it logically, he always knew Omega might have been taken to the same facility where Crosshair was being held prisoner. The whole reason they were on Eriadu in the first place was to determine Hemlock’s base of operations because that was supposedly where Crosshair was. It had just never occurred to Hunter that they might find each other there.

He didn’t realize that he, Wrecker, and Crosshair were having a three-way glaring match until Omega slid her hand into his.

“Hunter, we helped each other escape. The only reason I’m here is because of him.”

Hunter didn’t know what to think. There had to be more to it than that. The last time they saw Crosshair, he chose the Empire over his brothers and his potential daughter. What changed? What happened that made the Empire imprison him in the first place? When Hunter couldn’t think of a good reply, Omega let go of him and walked over to Crosshair. Hunter only just stopped himself from grabbing her and putting her behind him. She took Crosshair’s hand and pulled him forward. He didn’t snatch his hand away like he did back on the Kaminoan platform. He walked after her like a toy led by a string. Hunter kept glaring at him, and Crosshair glared right back.

“He’s coming with us,” Omega said. Hunter broke eye contact long enough to consider her resolute face. “And so is Batcher.”

Hunter’s brown furrowed. Who in the galaxy was—

Barking came from the freighter. A big, bluish animal with a crest on its head, a flat snout, and four muscular legs shuffled out. When it saw Omega, it barked again and trotted over to her. Hunter stepped back. The animal was bigger than she was. She could probably ride on it. Noticing its sharp teeth, he instinctively reached for his knife. But the thing lowered its head next to Omega, letting her scratch either side of its shoulders as its tongue lolled happily out of its muzzle.

“What is that thing?” Wrecker asked.

“A lurca hound,” Crosshair said. It had been so long since Hunter had heard his voice, he almost forgot his ever-cynical tone. “They used them for security on Tantiss. Omega made friends with this one.”

“Tantiss?” Hunter repeated.

Crosshair’s eyes narrowed. “That was the name of the base where we were held.”

After so long trying to learn that very fact, having Crosshair just come out and say it rubbed Hunter the wrong way. “What planet was it on?”

It was Omega who answered. “We don’t know. The first shuttle we stole crashed before we could extract the coordinates.”

Hunter thought again about his many questions. There was a long story to be told here, but this was neither the time nor place. “Let’s get out of here before the Empire shows up. They’re probably tracking that ship.” He put a hand on Omega’s shoulder to steer her toward the Marauder. Crosshair came a few paces behind them. Hunter wasn’t going to stop him, but his presence felt foreign now. He wasn’t used to his scent or the sound of his heartbeat anymore. The hound stayed by Omega’s side. The ship was going to be crowded with the addition of the canine, but Hunter wasn’t about to tell her she couldn’t keep it. He was never going to be able to tell her “no” about anything ever again. Besides, there would be plenty of room for it to run around on Pabu.

Hunter let Wrecker take care of start up and take off. He couldn’t take his eyes off Omega. If he did, he might suddenly wake up and realize this had all been a dream. Omega stood in the cabin and took in her surroundings with a smile. Her eyes ran over everything as though committing it to memory. Then she climbed up to the gunner’s mount. She sat on the floor and hugged Lula against her chest. She greeted the doll like an old friend, smooshing her face against its fabric.

Crosshair looked around too. Though his face kept its signature frown, he looked a little haunted. His gaze got stuck in the direction of Tech’s smashed goggles beside the console. He lowered himself slowly into a chair. Batcher, meanwhile, made it her job to sniff every single item on the ship. As long as she didn’t try to eat anything, Hunter didn’t mind.

Omega came back down the ladder with Lula tucked into her side.

“Are you hungry?” Hunter asked. He was still dying to know what she had to go through in order to escape and, more importantly, what was done to her on Tantiss. But he would start small. No need to overwhelm her right at the outset.

She shook her head. “Not really.”

“She’s hardly eaten anything for the past twenty-four hours,” Crosshair said.

Omega pouted. “Neither have you.”

“I’m not still growing. Unlike some people.”

She stuck her tongue out at him.

Hunter raised his eyebrows at the two of them. When did they get so…familiar? “Well, we can solve that,” he said. He retrieved two protein bars. They hadn’t restocked on any flavored ones, but he made a mental note to do that on their next supply run. He tossed one bar to Crosshair.

And he didn’t catch it. Hunter stopped in his tracks, watching Crosshair fumble to recover the bar from the floor. His right hand was trembling.

“Are you injured?”

“I’m fine,” Crosshair muttered, tearing open the wrapper.

“His hand’s been doing that for a while,” Omega said worriedly.

“It’s nothing.”

Hunter believed that about as much as he believed there was rain on Tatooine, but he let it slide for now. Maybe they needed to go pick up AZI. He gave the other bar to Omega.

“Thanks,” she said. She opened it and took a single bite. Then she put it down on the console.

Hunter frowned, anxiety tickling the back of his mind. “You should eat more than that.”

“I don’t feel like it right now,” she said, hugging Lula close. “I’m really tired.”

He was sure that was true. Who knew the last time she slept, or how well she had been sleeping while a prisoner? Maybe he could get her to rest and then try again with the food later. The thought of sending her up into the gunner’s mount, even though he would be able to hear her, sent a spike of fear through him. He wasn’t ready to have her more than an arm’s length away. Instead, he went and sat on his rack, grabbing his blanket and pillow. “Alright then, c’mon. You’ve earned a good rest.”

She seemed confused at first, but when he patted the spot beside him, she brightened. She sat next to him and he maneuvered her until she was curled up on the bunk, her head laying on the pillow against his leg. He covered her with the blanket. He combed his fingers through her hair, noting the clumps of dirt lodged in her ponytail. He would deal with that later. For now, he continued his ministrations and rested his other hand on her shoulder. “Go to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Omega looked up at him, the whites of her eyes showing her apprehension. “You promise?”

He traced his thumb down her cheek. “I promise.”

Apparently satisfied, she closed her eyes. It only took two minutes for her to fall asleep, her limp weight warm against his thigh.

Hunter was aware of Crosshair watching them. When he was certain Omega was completely out, he said quietly. “You told her who she is?”

“No,” Crosshair said.

Hunter looked up. “But she called me Dad. I thought…”

“She started doing that on her own. You obviously never told her, so why should I?”

Hunter hummed. He regretted not telling Omega the truth every day since she’d been taken. He always thought that he would tell her as soon as he saw her again. But Crosshair being here made things more difficult. Since it involved him too, she deserved to hear it from both of them. And Hunter wasn’t sure yet if Crosshair was to be trusted. He needed to hear his whole story before he could make that call. There was a possibility that it would be better for Omega not to know her possible connection to Crosshair. So it would have to wait.

“You can sleep too, if you want,” Hunter said. “Top bunk’s open.”

Echo had taken over Crosshair’s bunk since his departure from the squad, but with him gone too, it hadn’t been used in a while. Crosshair grunted. He stood, and Hunter noted how unsteady he was on his legs. He climbed up onto the upper rack on the wall across from Hunter and laid down with his back to him. He didn’t fall asleep as quickly. Hunter could tell from his breathing pattern. But he was resting, so he would leave him to it.

He heard Wrecker say, “Aw, you’re a good girl, aren’t you?” and realized he must be talking to Batcher in the co*ckpit. This was followed by big fingers scratching along coarse fur, happy-sounding pants, and repeats of, “Yes, who’s a good girl?” It sounded like Omega wasn’t the only one who had made a new friend.

Smiling, Hunter kept tracing his fingers lightly along Omega’s scalp. He couldn’t believe she was really here. His brain hadn’t quite caught up. Just yesterday he was more sure than ever that he’d never see her again.

I’m never letting you go again, he silently pledged. I’ll die before I let anyone hurt you.

After a while, Wrecker came back into the cabin. Batcher padded over, sniffed Omega, and then decided to curl up at Hunter’s feet. Wrecker grinned and knelt down beside them. “Looks like they’re all exhausted.”

Hunter’s smile slipped. “Probably for good reason. I wish I knew what they went through to get away.”

“Give ‘em time. We’ve got plenty of it now.”

Hunter nodded. He and Wrecker watched Omega sleep for a moment. Wrecker squeezed Hunter’s shoulder. “Five hours ‘til we get back to Pabu,” he said. “Want me to stay on watch?”

“No, you can take a break. I’m not going anywhere.”

Wrecker patted his back and then climbed onto the rack above his head. Hunter closed his eyes to listen to all the heartbeats on the ship. Not the same as it used to be, but much better than the emptiness that filled his senses for the past few months.

He didn’t mean to fall asleep. The sudden release of stress coupled with his poor sleeping habits of late must have conspired against him because all of a sudden he sat up from where he’d slumped back against the wall with the definite feeling that time had passed. He blinked groggily. Wrecker’s snoring came from above him. Crosshair hadn’t moved. He looked down.

Omega wasn’t in his lap.

Hunter jumped up, catching himself on the console chair when he stumbled. He knew it. He knew if he fell asleep he’d wake up and find none of it really happened—

A small cry came from the co*ckpit. He bolted toward it in four big strides. He found Omega sitting in the pilot’s chair. Batcher was beside her, nudging her leg with her nose. Omega’s head was bowed. She cried softly as she cradled something in her hands.

Hunter’s panic ebbed away and grief took its place when he saw what it was. Tech’s goggles. He crouched at her side. Gently, so not to startle her, he draped one arm around her shoulders. She didn’t seem surprised by his presence.

“It feels wrong that he’s not here,” she said through her tears. “He should be here.”

Hunter sighed. “I know.” It was all he could say. He couldn’t tell her that it was going to be okay, and he wasn’t going to tell her not to cry.

“I d-didn’t know…” She swallowed. “I didn’t know if any of the rest of you survived. I wanted to believe you did. But you were with Hemlock when I got stunned, and… And if Tech could die, then—then so could anyone.”

Hunter got his other arm around her and scooped her up. He took her place in the pilot’s chair and then settled her on his lap. He hugged her close to him as she rested her head against his shoulder. “And we didn’t know if you were okay,” he said. “We just had to hope and keep looking. I’m so sorry we couldn’t find you. We tried everything.”

She turned her face into his neck. As he looked down at her hands holding the goggles, he noticed something. She had been wearing fingerless gloves before, but now her hands were bare. And on the back of her left hand were dozens of tiny red dots. Some were old, mostly healed. Others were fresh. They looked like needle pricks.

His anxiety came roaring back. He almost asked her right then what happened to her during her confinement, but he couldn’t make her talk about it while she was already so emotionally fragile. He resigned himself to wait. But he was absolutely going to stop and get AZI. He just needed to alter their hyperspace route a bit.

He spun the chair toward the controls, and as if on cue, the comm channel beeped. Hunter looked at the hailing frequency. He rubbed Omega’s back. “It’s Echo. Do you want to talk to him?”

She sat up. “Yes!” She hastily wiped her eyes as Hunter connected the call.

A miniature hologram of Echo appeared out of the projector. “I got your message—” he started. Then he gasped. “Omega!”

“Echo!” She smiled.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m okay.”

Echo put a hand to his forehead, laughing breathlessly. “Gods, it’s so good to hear your voice, kid. We were so worried. What happened? How did you get away?”

“Crosshair helped me.”

“Crosshair? Is he with you?”

“He’s here, but he’s asleep.”

“Right.” Echo paused. “Where were you? We’ve been looking for the Advanced Science Division’s base for months. If you have any information you could share…”

“She doesn’t know where it is,” Hunter said.

“But still, her intel could be invaluable in helping track down and rescue the other clones trapped there.”

Hunter hugged Omega tighter. “Now’s not the time, Echo. She just got back. Give her a chance to catch her breath.”

“No,” Omega said. “If it will help the other prisoners, I’ll…I-I’ll…” Her eyes filled back up with tears.

“How about this,” Echo said gently. “I’ll come meet you on Pabu in a few days. You can get settled in, and then we can have a proper debriefing at your own pace. How does that sound?”

Omega sagged back against Hunter. “That sounds good.”

“Copy that. I’ll see you soon. Keep an eye on the others for me, will you? They’ve been hopeless with you.”

She gave a single, tiny giggle. “Affirmative.”

With one final smile, Echo signed off. Hunter decided he wouldn’t push her to talk about Tantiss until Echo arrived. He would just be there to help her recover, or cry, or whatever else she needed to do. That’s what fathers were for. He held her until she fell back asleep, Tech’s goggles still held loosely in her grip.

Chapter 8

Chapter Text

Crosshair stayed inside the freighter while Omega reunited with Wrecker and Hunter. He didn’t have Hunter’s hearing, but he could still hear her weeping. He’d never seen her like that before. Even on Tantiss when she was obviously struggling, she never cried. She was always determined and optimistic. But in Hunter’s arms she became a blubbering mess. Crosshair was glad Hunter knew how to deal with that, because he certainly didn’t. He waited until he couldn’t hear her crying anymore before grabbing his backpack and making his appearance.

And just like he expected, the reception was cold. Not that he was happy to see them either. He couldn’t look at Hunter’s stupid face without thinking about being left behind on Kamino that first time when his chip was active and his squad just accepted that he was betraying them instead of noticing that something was wrong.

Then he boarded the Marauder and it got worse. It was like stepping into an alternate version of his past. Because so much was the same, so many things exactly like he remembered, but so much had changed too. Things had been moved around. There was a curtain hanging across the entrance to the gunner’s mount. And though he had known about Tech’s death for months, it was still jarring not to find him tapping away at his datapad in the pilot’s chair. Omega must have thought so too. He heard her crying again sometime during the night. It was accompanied by Hunter’s soft words. This must be something he’d become proficient in since taking in the kid.

Crosshair hadn’t asked where they were going, but when they made one stop at a deserted location where Wrecker stepped out, came back minutes later with a medical droid, and then took them back into space, he figured they hadn’t arrived yet. Omega was happy to see the droid. It was that same one she almost drowned herself on Kamino to save. In retrospect, Crosshair shouldn’t have been surprised that she refused to leave Batcher behind on Lau. This was a pattern.

Hunter immediately had the droid scan Omega.

“I see no great areas for concern aside from general dehydration and malnourishment,” AZI-3 reported.

“Malnourishment?” Hunter said.

“It seems she has not maintained a caloric intake appropriate for her size and age.”

“How much food did they give you?” Hunter asked Omega with a frown.

Omega shrugged. “I dunno. I ate most of it. Except what I gave to Batcher.”

“What?” Crosshair said. She hadn’t mentioned that before.

“Batcher didn’t like the dry food they fed the hounds in the kennel. I gave her some of my nuggets every day.”

Crosshair ran a hand down his face with a sigh. “Of course you did. So you haven’t been eating as much as you should for weeks.”

“Well, neither have you! They barely gave the prisoners anything.”

“I can devise nutrition plans for both Omega and CT-9904 that slowly increase calories and support their recovery,” the droid said. The extra arm unfolded from his back and angled toward Crosshair as though he was about to scan him too.

Crosshair pushed it away. “No thanks.”

“It won’t hurt, Crosshair,” Omega said as if that was the issue.

He didn’t need a droid to tell him what he already knew. The muscles in his limbs had degenerated from lack of use and would need time and exercise to recover. His stomach had probably shrunk to get used to smaller portions of food. And his hand… He was in denial that it couldn’t be fixed. If AZI scanned it and found permanent nerve damage, then it was all over. He would never shoot accurately again. Which for a sniper was out of the question. But if no one diagnosed him, he could keep telling himself that he could get it under control with a little practice.

“I’m fine,” he said. Then to AZI he added. “Just take care of the kid.”

Hunter grabbed the protein bar Omega abandoned earlier. “We can start here. Try to eat half of this.”

Omega managed it, albeit slowly. She also talked Hunter into letting her give the other half to Batcher because the hound hadn’t eaten since they’d left Tantiss either. She had a point, but Crosshair still didn’t like it. He kept a close eye on her the rest of the trip. Hunter noticed. He spent half his time glued to Omega’s side and the other half watching Crosshair suspiciously.

Finally, they arrived at their destination. It was the island Omega told him about. The place she called “home.” Omega ran out of the ship as soon as they landed, Hunter at her heels. Crosshair hesitated.

“You’ll like it if you give it a chance,” Wrecker said, bumping his shoulder. It was the first friendly gesture he’d offered.

Crosshair disembarked into a huge courtyard at the top of the conical island with blaring sunlight in his eyes and salty air on his face. Several people were running to gather around Omega. One was a little girl with dark skin who looked about her same developmental age. She hugged Omega when she got to her and they both laughed and cried. A tall man with a round belly shook Hunter’s hand and patted his shoulder. A few other adults of various races said things to Hunter with big smiles.

Then three familiar-looking boys hurried over. Crosshair raised an eyebrow.

“Reg cadets,” Wrecker said beside him. “We found them abandoned on a planet where Hemlock’s lab used to be. He was experimenting on them.”

As if Crosshair couldn’t hate Hemlock more.

“C’mon,” Wrecker said. “I’ll introduce you.”

“I’ll pass,” Crosshair said, not moving forward.

“You don’t have to meet everyone at once. But you might as well start, right? Since you’ll be staying here.”

Crosshair ground his jaw, wishing he had looked through the storage compartments on the Marauder to see if any of his toothpicks were still on board. He hadn’t decided if he was staying. He’d escaped the Empire. He brought Omega back to her real family. He wasn’t needed anymore. And Hunter was making it clear he wasn’t wanted either.

Wrecker started walking and Crosshair went with him because he didn’t know what else to do. He was just close enough to hear one of the cadets cry, “You found her! You found your dau—”

“Omega, yes,” Hunter cut him off. “Omega, this is Deke, Stak, and Mox. They’re clones.”

She beamed at them. Crosshair stopped paying attention to whatever she said next because the tall man approached him and Wrecker.

“This must be the brother you were looking for,” he said. “Welcome to Pabu. I’m Shep, mayor of this island.”

Crosshair nodded. “Crosshair.”

“I’ve told Hunter that his family is welcome to join us for dinner tonight if you all feel up to it. That includes you, of course.”

“Oh you know we’ll be there!” Wrecker said.

“Good. Come whenever you’re ready. I can offer more than food. My house has provided a resting place for more than one weary traveler. And if Omega needs a change of clothes, Lyana has a few old things she can share.”

Wrecker thanked him. The other little girl took Omega’s hand and pulled her away. Hunter followed them, and when Wrecker did too, Crosshair was stuck. He needed to get a lay of the land before he knew where else to go.

Which was how he found himself on a beautiful outdoor porch overlooking the ocean as the sun began to set. Wrecker lounged in one of the wicker chairs, feeding Batcher bits of the fruit Shep had brought them to serve as an appetizer. Hunter was with Omega and the other girl inside somewhere, and Shep was busy preparing the meal. Crosshair looked out over the island. It stretched far below them, sprawling into the sea. It was constructed of tiers, and each tier had streets lined with quaint houses and other buildings. There were fishing boats docked at the pier. The sound of the waves was quiet up here, but still present.

Maybe it was that peaceful sound that got him. There was no buzz of electricity overhead. No artificial lights. No moans of other prisoners in pain. No tight walls confining him. Everything was open and airy and…free. It was suffocating.

Crosshair left the house, ignoring Wrecker calling, “Crosshair?” after him. He had to get away. Had to be alone somewhere. The street was full of people. Many of them wished him good evening as he passed. What was wrong with them? Who did that? He kept going, following the winding lane downward, until he took a set of stairs down a big stone wall and reached the lower half of the island. Things were a little less developed here, though a lot of the structures looked new. He located what he was looking for fairly quickly: an isolated cove of palm trees. He ducked into their shade.

He startled some small primate creatures as he trekked through the grass to a boulder tucked away between thin trunks. His legs ached. He sat on the boulder with a sigh. The climate here was temperate, but humid. He was sweating in the heavy clothes he stole to keep him warm on Lau.

His head felt a little clearer as he sat with trees on all sides of him, watching the shadows grow longer as the sun set. He could tell right away that he didn’t belong on Pabu. After the things he’d done in the name of the Empire, he didn’t deserve this kind of refuge. He should take a few days to heal and then arrange passage off-world. Hunter said Echo was coming soon. He could give him a ride. Crosshair had no idea where he would go, but there had to be a better place for a clone disgraced by both the Republic and the Empire than this too-good-to-be-true paradise.

It was almost dark when he heard the grass rustle with someone else’s footsteps. Omega headed straight for him. He saw her clearly in the low light. She carried a bundle of fabric under her arm and a thin tray of food in her hands. He was about to ask how she found him when he felt the distinct prickle of eyes on him. He spotted Hunter hovering at the edge of the cove like a shadow. Of course. He wasn’t going to leave Omega alone for the next few years probably.

“I know you might not be very hungry,” she said as she sat down next to him on the boulder, “but you should really try one of these. Even I ate a whole one. They’re the most delicious thing ever.” She was in new, weather-appropriate clothes and had obviously bathed.

She picked something off the tray and held it out to him. It looked like a ball of rice molded into a triangle shape and wrapped in a line of seaweed. When Crosshair took it, the rice stuck to his fingers. He raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“I’m serious!” Omega said. “There’s good stuff inside. Try it.”

Well, if he wanted to recover his strength so that he could move on, he needed to eat. He took a bite. The rice was strangely sour and salty and concealed shreds of seasoned fish. It was…really good.

He didn’t say anything, but Omega must have read the fact that he kept eating without protesting as a positive sign. “See? I told you.” She draped the pile of fabric over his leg. “These are some clothes that Shep got from a neighbor who’s about your size. He says they’re second-hand, but still in good condition.”

Crosshair stared down at what looked like a loose shirt, trousers, and a vest. “Why is he helping me?”

“That’s what people do here. When we first got here, there was a huge sea surge that took out half the island. Everyone got to safety on Upper Pabu, but all the houses on Lower Pabu were destroyed. The whole island came together to rebuild, make food, and open their homes to whoever needed a place to stay. We helped too. People thanked us and shared their food. Hunter started talking about staying here for good.”

She went quiet. She peered up at the moon through the palm leaves. “It’s weird being back, after everything. Tantiss was the exact opposite of Pabu. I keep feeling like I’m supposed to go report to Emerie or I’ll get in trouble. I can’t believe that we really made it. It’s like my head hasn’t caught up with my body.”

They listened to the nighttime insects begin their chorus. Omega yawned. “It hasn’t been a full rotation since I slept, but I’m still tired. Let’s go back to the Marauder.” She held the tray with one hand and took a hold of his hand with her other one. He hadn’t figured out yet how he was supposed to deny her when she did that.

He took a sonic shower in the Marauder that evening and tried on the new clothes. He didn’t care about style or fit, he only cared how vulnerable civvies made him feel. No armor, no protection. How was he supposed to keep himself or anyone else safe like that? They were comfortable enough to sleep in though, and just walking around Pabu had exhausted him, so it wasn’t long before he drifted off on his bunk.

He awoke only a couple hours later to the sound of a distressed whimper. He heard Hunter’s feet hit the floor before he could even move. He turned his head to see Hunter reach the gunner’s mount in record time, scale the ladder, and pull back the curtain.

“Omega, wake up,” he whispered. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”

The familiarity with which he said the words made Crosshair think this was not Omega’s first bad dream nor Hunter’s first time comforting her through one. His stomach twisted. He never thought to ask Omega if she had bad dreams while on Tantiss. Who helped her through it then?

Hunter disappeared up into the gunner’s mount, speaking softly. Omega sniffled and answered just as quietly. Crosshair closed his eyes. Hunter knew all the right things to do, all the right things to say. More proof that he was father-material, and Crosshair was not. More proof that Crosshair wasn’t needed here.

Just then, he heard Omega say, “Um, can I talk to Crosshair?”

There was a pause. “Sure. Of course.”

Crosshair sat up on this bunk. Hunter came down from the gunner’s mount. He narrowed his eyes up at Crosshair for a few seconds, but then moved away from the ladder. Crosshair jumped to the floor. He climbed two rungs of the ladder until he could rest his elbows on the floor of the upper room. Omega sat there in the space to the side of the chair with a blanket wrapped around her. Her eyes were glassy.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

She looked down as though ashamed. “I dreamed we never escaped. That we were still there. It wasn’t all that scary, really, just…” She jerked her shoulders in a pitiful shrug. “You know what it was like. You were there too.”

Yes, he knew all too well. And Hunter didn’t. He climbed the rest of the way up into the gunner’s mount and settled himself on the mat beside her. He leaned his back against the wall and crossed his arms. “We’re not still there. We did escape. Mostly thanks to you.”

“I know.” She tilted toward him until her head rested against his arm. “I can’t wait to see Echo, but I’m kind of dreading it too. I don’t want to have to tell him everything.”

“You don’t have to tell him a damned thing.”

“Yes I do. And you should too. We have to help the other clones. They deserve to be free just as much as we do. And Echo and Rex might be able to do it.”

“Hm. Then you tell him only what he needs to know to complete his mission. Nothing more, nothing less.”

She sighed. “You’ll be there with me, right?”

Crosshair’s heart fluttered strangely. “Mhmm.”

“Okay.” Her eyes drifted closed.

He didn’t dare move and risk dislodging her. Her breaths grew longer. Eventually, her head nodded forward. Crosshair caught her as gently as he could and eased her down onto her mat. Then he untangled himself from the small space, closed her curtain, and returned to the cabin.

Hunter was sitting on his bunk, his elbows resting on his knees. He sat up straight when Crosshair turned around. His expression was dark and worried. “Crosshair,” he said, “what happened to her on Tantiss? I have to know.”

Aside from having her freedom stripped away, being isolated from her family, and being forced to work for Hemlock, Crosshair only knew what Omega told him when she came to his cell every day. Even he didn’t know the extent of what she experienced. But telling Hunter any of that without her permission felt wrong. If she wasn’t ready to let anyone else in on her trauma, that was her call.

“She’ll tell you when she wants to,” he said, climbing back onto his bunk. “If she wants to.”

That must not have been the answer Hunter wanted. Crosshair could feel his eyes burning holes into his back and he turned toward the wall and tried to go back to sleep.

Chapter 9

Chapter Text

It was Wrecker who decided to give Crosshair his rifle back. Even when they’d been severely low on funds, they never considered selling it or his old armor. But that didn’t mean Hunter wanted to give it back to him yet. There was so much he wasn’t telling them. Not only about his departure from the Empire, but about Tantiss too. Hunter needed to know the reason for these secrets, and he needed to know it soon. Adding a weapon to the mix wasn’t going to improve anything.

Wrecker, on the other hand, thought he needed something to focus on. “It’s what he was made for,” he said. “He deserves to get a little of himself back.”

Crosshair disappeared down to a secluded beach almost immediately to practice shooting, recruiting AZI to hold targets for him. His hand had not stopped shaking. He was struggling to hit things accurately. Hunter knew because during their first few days back on Pabu, Crosshair kept trying to isolate himself and Omega kept trying to follow him. Hunter was not comfortable leaving them alone, so he always shadowed her. He stood at a distance while Crosshair tried to shoot things he used to be able to hit in his sleep and Omega sat behind him trying to encourage him. After an hour or so, when her attempts to get him to come join in some activity or other failed, she would slink back to Hunter pouting.

He tried to explain to her that Crosshair had always been that way. She grew up alone in Nala Se’s lab for the first part of her life, which was why she hated being alone now. She always wanted to be with someone, especially when stressed. Crosshair was not that way. He thrived on solitude. He liked to deal with things on his own. She shouldn’t take it personally. Actually, Hunter was impressed he let her hang around for as long as he did. He’d never extended the same courtesy to his batchmates.

The only reason Hunter hadn’t confronted him to demand answers yet was because he didn’t want Omega there when he did it, and when she wasn’t with Crosshair, she spent the rest of her time at Hunter’s side. She went to see Lyana and gave in to some of Wrecker’s attempts to get her to play (though her enthusiasm was subdued), but she and Hunter seemed to have an unspoken agreement to stay within one another’s line of sight. Much to his relief. He closely monitored how much she slept and ate. He was always there to offer a supportive hand on her shoulder or a hug when she wanted one, which was often.

Their fourth day on Pabu, Omega said she wanted to go down to the beach. Once there, she didn’t splash around in the ocean or jump on the rocks like she used to. She sat down in the sand just out of reach of the water, staring out at the horizon. Hunter sat down with her. He restrained himself from asking her what was on her mind, waiting patiently until she was ready to talk.

“I missed the sound of the waves,” she said after a while. “They sound like home. On Kamino they were big and rough, but here they’re soothing. I had a window in my cell on Tantiss. The base was inside a mountain, so every day I looked out over the forest far below me and wished I could hear waves again.”

It was the first time she’d willingly talked about Tantiss. Hunter was careful not to interrupt while she worked through her thoughts.

“I’m so happy to be back,” she said. “But I’m also still sad. I thought everything would go back to normal once I got home. Well, not totally normal. It will never be normal without Tech. But I thought I’d feel…better. I’m free. Crosshair is free. We’re home. But I can’t stop thinking about Tantiss. I don’t want to think about it anymore. I just want to be here. So why can’t I stop?”

Hunter’s spirit sank. He should have known not all of her healing would be physical. He looped an arm around her and pulled her into his side. “I missed the sound of your heartbeat.”

She looked up at him. “You can hear my heart?”

“Yep. I can hear a lot of things. It’s part of my enhancement. Everyone’s heart sounds a little bit different. For the people I’m around them most, I can recognize the sound without seeing them. I was used to hearing yours on the ship. And then suddenly it was gone. So was Tech’s. It was hard. Even now, when you’re far enough away that I can’t hear it, it reminds me of when you weren’t here. I don’t want to think about it anymore either. But I still do.”

He rested his cheek against her sun-warmed hair. “It will get better. We’ll get through this. You have us. Never forget that.”

She laid her head on his chest and he swore she was listening to his heart too.

That evening, when he kissed her goodnight, she seemed lighter. She didn’t wake during the night with any bad dreams, and when Hunter got up in the morning, she was still sleeping soundly up in her room. She didn’t even stir when Crosshair opened the Marauder’s ramp and trooped off with his rifle. Batcher trailed after him of her own accord.

Hunter and Wrecker moved about the ship quietly. Omega needed the rest. They were happy to let her sleep in. Hunter heard Shep and Lyana approaching and went to meet them outside so their voices wouldn’t wake her up.

“How’s Omega?” Lyana asked, handing him a basket of fruit.

“She’s good,” Hunter said. “Still sleeping.” Shep handed him two steaming mugs of tea. Hunter rearranged the basket onto his elbow so that he could hold it all. “Thank you for this. We really appreciate everything you’ve done.”

“It’s our pleasure,” Shep said. “Have you considered relocating to a permanent residence? There’s ample space for new housing in Lower Pabu. You were such a crucial part of the rebuilding efforts, I’m sure there would be several volunteers to help you build.”

“I’ve thought about it,” Hunter said, staring down into the light brown tea. The trouble was, he couldn’t guarantee staying on Pabu long term was feasible anymore. Everything was uncertain at the moment. He didn’t know what to do with Crosshair, he didn’t know what intel Omega might give Echo and how it might affect his mission, and he didn’t know if he could hang up his armor yet. He wanted Hemlock dead. Something told him that Omega would never truly be safe until he was. But he also wasn’t keen on taking any risks that might leave her fatherless. He hadn’t committed to helping Echo and Rex free the other clones for that reason.

“I’ll let you know if we decide to do that,” he said at last. He thanked them again and then went back inside the ship.

Wrecker took a long drink of his tea even though it was still hot. Hunter took smaller sips. They both started in on the fruit when he heard Omega moving. She came down the ladder a minute later, her hair in disarray, and Wrecker grinned. “Look who’s awake!”

“How’d you sleep?” Hunter asked.

She stretched her arms over her head and rubbed her eyes. “Better than ever.” She sounded more like herself than she had yet.

Wrecker tossed her a small purple fruit just the right size to fit in her palm. “Delivery from Shep and Lyana.”

She caught it with both hands. “Another one?”

“They’re happy you’re back!”

“And so are we,” Hunter added.

Omega took a bite. She looked past them into the co*ckpit. “Where’s Crosshair?”

“Took his rifle and went out again,” Wrecker said.

“Did he eat anything?”

“Don’t think so.”

Omega sighed. She took a seat in one of the chairs to finish her breakfast. When she was done, she wiped her hands off on her pants and hopped back up. “I’ll go check on him.” She grabbed another piece of fruit.

Hunter gulped down the rest of his tea and set down his mug. Omega knew the drill by now. Wherever she went, he went.

* * * * *

Crosshair peered through his scope. Having the Firepuncher back in his hands should have been a refreshing development, but it was hard to be anything but annoyed when all he could see was a shaky image of his target. AZI floated out over the water several yards away, holding a pink melon aloft. And try as he might, Crosshair had only been able to hit about half of the fruit out of his hand all morning. His shots kept going wide. Even when measuring his breath and waiting for the wind to be just right, his bolts missed by inches. The ones that did hit could almost be chalked up to luck.

AZI suddenly rose a few feet up and cried, “Greetings, Omega!”

Of course she found him. She never left Crosshair alone for long. It was not that he minded her presence so much as she proved a distraction. Her worry for him oozed from every pore with each shot he missed. Crosshair wasn’t used to anyone fretting over him. He would rather get his tremors under control and then let her watch him practice. How was she supposed to feel safe with him if she saw firsthand that he couldn’t protect her?

Batcher barked excitedly and went to greet Omega as she approached. The hound had been following him around more lately. He couldn’t fathom why. He had every intention of letting her be Omega’s pet.

As Omega came up beside him, she eyed the bowl of fruit sitting on the rock he was crouching behind. “Shep and Lyana found you, then?”

“Their ability to do so is uncanny.”

“You know, they probably intended for you to eat the food, not blow it to pieces.” She dropped a fruit she’d been carrying into the bowl.

“I ate one,” he said. Which was sort of true. He ate a single slice of melon and his stomach felt full.

She sat down with her back against the rock. “I know what you’ve been doing out here, Crosshair. But you can’t keep hiding. You’re going to have to talk to Hunter eventually.”

“I’m not hiding,” he said, readjusting his scope. “I’m training.”

To prove his point, he took another shot. It whizzed right by AZI, who yelped. He scowled down at his shaking right hand. Why wouldn’t it stop?

“I’m sure AZI could look at your hand for you,” Omega said tentatively, as if she hadn’t suggested it ten times before.

“I’m fine.” He slid his rifle a quarter inch to the left against his shoulder. Maybe if he just adjusted his position…

“So, what skills does this require besides good sight?”

Crosshair sighed. This was the other reason she was such a distraction. She seemed to think that they needed to carry on a conversation while he trained. “Being a sniper is more than just looking through a scope. It’s about patience. Reading the environment.” There came a quiet grating of foot against rock somewhere on the overhang up above him. “And knowing when you’ve got eyes on you.” He glanced over his shoulder. Not only was Hunter watching from afar, as expected, but Wrecker had joined him today too. “They don’t trust me.”

“Give it time,” Omega said as she stood up. She put a hand on his back. “But you will have to talk to them. Running off on your own all the time only makes it worse. Everything that happened on Kamino was a long time ago. Just talk to Hunter, and I know he’ll see what I see in you.”

“Hm.” Crosshair didn’t share her optimism about Hunter’s understanding. They butted heads for years before she was ever in the picture. She didn’t know the amount of history that had to be overcome in order for them to see eye to eye.

Just then, Hunter whistled down at them. They both looked up and spotted the ship coming in to land near the distant top of the island.

Omega gasped. “It’s Echo!”

Crosshair stood and lowered his rifle. “Perfect.”

Omega took two steps back toward the path that led away from the beach and then stopped. Her demeanor changed. Her shoulders tightened and she bit her lip. “You’ll be with me, right? When I talk to Echo?”

“I said I would, didn’t I?” He didn’t mean to make his voice so gentle when he spoke to her. It just came out that way sometimes.

She visibly relaxed. “Yes.” She spun around and hurried to go join Hunter and Wrecker. She called for Batcher to come along.

AZI hovered over to Crosshair with the undamaged fruit still in his grasp. “I have tabulated your shooting accuracy,” he said. “Your target success rate today was at 53%. Well below your average.”

Crosshair groaned.

By the time they all reached the top of the island, Echo was waiting for them just outside his ship. He broke into a smile when he saw Omega. She ran to him with her arms held out and he jogged to meet her in the middle. He caught her and spun her around once before kneeling down to hug her properly.

“Oh, kid. It’s so good to see you safe. We missed you.”

Crosshair had to stop and stare at the sight of Echo hugging someone. He’d never known him to be affectionate in any manner. He was all business all the time. Mission-minded. Just like a reg.

As Echo let her go and stood up, Crosshair couldn’t resist having a bit of fun. “What, no hug for me?”

Echo scoffed at him. “Depends how good your intel is.”

There he was. That was the squadmate Crosshair remembered. He scoffed right back. Omega must have picked up on the playful nature of the interaction because she smiled.

Echo looked around at the populated square. “Should we talk on my ship?” he asked Hunter. “Or would you prefer the Marauder?”

“Shep said we could use his house when you got here,” Hunter said.

Omega quickly took Echo’s hand. “We don’t have to start right away, do we? You just landed. And I haven’t seen you in months. Can’t we do something else first?”

“Like what?” Echo asked.

“We could play a game, or…or take a walk. I didn’t get to show you everything the last time you were here.”

Crosshair was pretty sure they all knew what she was doing. He opened his mouth to tell her that putting it off wasn’t going to make anything better, but Hunter said, “We have a little time. I’ll let Shep know that Echo’s here. You can take him around and we’ll all meet at Shep’s house at 1500. Sound good?”

Omega beamed. “Yes.” She pulled Echo along immediately. “C’mon!”

Crosshair was a little surprised that Hunter seemed willing to part from her, but later that day, when he stepped into the Hazard’s enclosed front porch, he found the three of them together. Hunter must have caught up with Omega and Echo and stuck with them after running his errand. For his part, Crosshair spent the day doing more shooting practice, cleaning his rifle inside and out, and searching the Marauder for his toothpicks. He was relieved to find one pack left in the far back of an upper compartment. He was going to need them for the coming talk.

Shep and Lyana provided them with a meal. Crosshair still didn’t understand why they were so nice. They gave without asking for anything in return. After the dishes were cleared, they left the clones and Omega alone at the table.

“So,” Echo said, “what can you tell me about this Imperial science base?”

Omega sat in a middle chair with Hunter on her left and Crosshair on her right. Hunter was attentive to her every move, and Crosshair would be lying if he said he wasn’t too. She looked down at the table, clenching her hands in her lap.

“The facility was built inside a mountain,” she began. “There were stormtroopers, but also clone commandos guarding it. A lot of them. Most of the clone prisoners were held in the detention block. I counted at least twenty, but I don’t know if there were more in other wings. Hemlock and the other scientists were using them for testing. They took blood samples from them. They took samples from me every day too.”

Hunter’s eyes flicked down to her hands.

“Is that all they wanted you for?” Echo asked carefully. “Taking samples?”

“No. I was there so that they could force Nala Se to work for them. She’d been their prisoner ever since they destroyed Tipoca City, but she refused to cooperate with their experiments until they captured me. They had me assist her in the lab, like I used to do on Kamino.” She lowered her volume. “Hemlock threatened to hurt me, sometimes, if he thought she wasn’t working fast enough.”

Crosshair put a toothpick in his mouth so that he could have something to demolish. He saw Hunter squeeze his hand into a fist where it rested on the table.

“And did he?” Echo asked.

Omega went quiet for too long and Crosshair’s blood pressure shot up.

“Omega?” Hunter said. The dread in his voice was palpable.

She still wouldn’t look up. “There was one time, near the beginning… Hemlock came into the lab and said he just had a conversation with the Emperor. He gave Nala Se a new timeline to finish her project. When she told him it wasn’t possible, he pushed me into the console. I hit my head.” She rubbed her forehead with her thumb. “I stayed in my cell for two days after that.”

Crosshair spit out his toothpick. He’d already bitten it in half. “You didn’t come to my cell for a week.”

“Come to your cell?” Hunter repeated.

“I would sneak away in the afternoons to go see Crosshair so we could plan our escape,” Omega said. “And just to talk. It was the only thing I had to look forward to.” She turned her head a bit to glance at Crosshair. “Didn’t want you to see the bruise back then. Not like you could have done anything about it until I figured out how to get you out of there anyway.”

Hunter rested a hand on her shoulder. “Did Hemlock do anything else to you? Did anyone else?”

She shrugged her other shoulder. “The guards were rough, sometimes. But the worst they did was push me or grab my arm too hard. Emerie didn’t let them do anything else.”

“Emerie?” Echo said.

“She works for Hemlock. She’s a clone, like us. Like me. She didn’t stand up to Hemlock, but I don’t think she likes everything he’s doing. I think she might be a prisoner too, even if she doesn’t realize it yet.”

When Tech first offered his assessment that Omega was an enhanced clone, Crosshair thought it kind of a waste to bother enhancing a female, at least if she were going to be used as a soldier. Then Hunter told him where Omega really came from, and it all made sense. Emerie, on the other hand, was an enigma. Was she a fluke? A one in a million chance that a clone of a male host came out female? Maybe Omega was right and Emerie never had any more choice regarding her occupation than any other clone.

“What else happened?” Hunter asked. Crosshair got the impression he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Nothing, really. I took the blood samples from Emerie to Nala Se. I handed her things and cleaned the equipment. I helped feed the lurca hounds, which was how I met Batcher. It was just… It reminded me so much of Kamino. Back before I met any of you, when I was alone. Sometimes when I woke up I thought I must still be there. That you never came back for me after all.”

Crosshair wondered if she ever talked about Kamino with the others. She hadn’t with him, yet. It had never occurred to him how lonely her childhood must have been. It made his blood boil. Nala Se knew Omega wasn’t a clone. She knew she was the child of someone on his squad and she never told them. He remembered making fun of Hunter back in Tipoca City for suggesting that he would have wanted to know about Omega from the outset. Now Crosshair couldn’t agree more. They could have spared her all those years alone. Even if it meant deserting from the Republic. His imagination conjured up an image of Omega as a tiny blonde baby propped up on a chair in the Marauder, and he had to push the thought away. No use getting sentimental.

“Everything on Tantiss was just…” Omega looked to Crosshair as though asking for help. Her eyes were glassy.

He could think of a lot of adjectives to describe Tantiss. Terrible. Hellish. Suffocating. Diabolical. But he thought he knew the one she was looking for. “Hopeless.”

She nodded. “Yeah.” Hunter squeezed her shoulder.

“How did you escape?” Echo asked.

“One day, Nala Se said I was in danger and needed to escape immediately. She told me to take her datapad.” She produced a tablet from where it had been sitting in her lap. Crosshair had almost forgotten about the datapad. She must have slipped it into his backpack back on Lau. “All of the doors on Tantiss require one of these to operate. I was able to use it to free Crosshair and get us around the facility. We went through Batcher’s empty kennel to get outside. I let her go just a few weeks before that. There was a crashed shuttle in the jungle we were aiming for, but it was totally busted. Not even the comms worked. But when they came after us, we used Plan 72 to take one of their ships.”

Wrecker laughed. “That’s one of the best plans! Works every time.”

That got a little smile out of Omega. She went on to explain their brief foray on Lau and how she finally sent a message to the Marauder for pick up. Echo nodded thoughtfully. He turned to Crosshair when she was done.

“And what about you? Anything else to add?”

Crosshair popped a new toothpick into his mouth. He was not eager to relive his experiences on Tantiss. Dwelling on those recent memories was like picking at a new scab. It was no wonder Omega had been reluctant to do it. He couldn’t see a reason to tell them about his torture and Hemlock’s failure to erase his identity and turn him into a shadow. From snippets of conversation that he’d caught between Hunter and Wrecker, he’d deduced that they had already run into at least one clone that had his mind wiped, so they knew operatives like that were out there. “I was a prisoner. Not much to tell.”

Hunter’s suspicious eyes lingered on him. Crosshair decided to focus on Batcher instead, who was asleep at his feet.

Echo sat back, crossing his arms. “We’ve been searching for this base for a long time. Accurate intel’s hard to come by. We need to know all we can before making any moves.”

Omega slid Nala Se’s datapad across the table to him. “This doesn’t work anymore, but if we can get it online, maybe we can pull more intel on Tantiss.”

“You’re right,” Hunter said. “It could have schematics. Entry points. Maybe even the coordinates of the base itself.”

Echo picked up the datapad. “Imperial encryption will be a problem. Especially…without Tech.”

As they all fell silent, Crosshair looked at the empty chair across from him. The spot where Tech should have been. The spot that he only wasn’t in because he’d sacrificed himself on a mission to try and find out Crosshair’s location. Even though he’d had months to grapple with that guilt, it sliced through his gut like a fresh wound.

He swallowed. He could think of one workaround. It would require him to go back to a place of pain and regret, almost as bad as Tantiss itself. But maybe that’s what he deserved. Maybe this was his penance. “Plugging it into an Imperial terminal will bypass the encryption,” he said.

“Where will we get one of those?” Wrecker said.

“I…know a facility. Remote. Understaffed. It shouldn’t be a problem to infiltrate.” An involuntary shiver ran down his spine as he thought about Barton IV.

Hunter considered Crosshair for a long moment. Then he said, “Crosshair, Echo, and I will go to this ‘remote’ facility. Wrecker and Omega, you stay here.”

Omega’s head snapped towards him. “You’re leaving me behind? We’re finally together, and you want to split us up?”

Hunter leaned his elbow on the table, meeting her eyes intensely. “We just got you back. I am not going to risk you getting captured again.”

“Yeah, we escaped. But I left all those clones behind.”

“It’s not your responsibility to save them. You are never going back to Tantiss, Omega. Not involuntarily, and not when Rex’s team finds and infiltrates the base.”

“I didn’t say I had to go to Tantiss. But I can help do this. We’re stronger when we’re all together. You said so yourself. You weren’t there, Hunter. You don’t know how much those clones were suffering. I have to do something to help them. I need to.”

Hunter’s eyebrows pulled together worriedly. He looked to Echo and Wrecker for their input, and noticeably, not to Crosshair.

Wrecker seemed conflicted, but Echo said, “She’s always been an asset on missions. We trained her well.”

Hunter sighed. “Alright. But Wrecker, Crosshair, and I will clear out the base first, and then you and Echo come in to handle the decryption. Understood?”

Omega gave him a little two-fingered salute. “Got it.”

If Crosshair had been asked his opinion, he might have actually agreed with Hunter’s original plan. Back in his cell, Omega told him stories about things she used to do with the squad, and at the time he didn’t think much of it. Now that he was the one about to take her into danger, he wasn’t sure it was such a good idea. She was a good shot, and she’d done well during Plan 72. She was far braver than most kids her age. But that didn’t mean she should have to be. He wondered if she would feel the same level of devotion to the captive clones if she knew she wasn’t a clone herself.

Everyone else took Hunter’s word as law.

“Let’s get started,” Echo said. “What do we need to know about this base?”

“It’s on Barton IV,” Crosshair said. “I hope you all still have cold weather gear.”

Chapter 10

Chapter Text

They took Echo’s ship to Barton IV. It was the longest that Hunter and Crosshair had been both awake and in close quarters with one another yet. Crosshair was clearly on edge. He chewed up one toothpick after another. Hunter didn’t know if it was his own presence that agitated him or something about the upcoming mission. Possibly both.

“Are you sure there’s nothing else we need to know about this outpost?” Hunter asked for the third time while they were in hyperspace.

“I told you everything,” Crosshair grumbled, slumped in his chair with his arms crossed. “Clearing it should be an easy task for mercenaries of your caliber.”

Hunter frowned at this, but Omega rolled her eyes. “We weren’t mercenaries. We ran missions!”

“Uh-huh. For a dubious patron who eventually sold you out.”

“And I suppose your work for the Empire was better?” Hunter countered.

Crosshair made a sour face and fell quiet. His right hand shook and he tucked it into his elbow.

Omega, in the seat beside him, watched him with a worried crinkle in her eyebrows. She pointed to his toothpick. “Can I have one of those?”

Crosshair hesitated, then pulled one out of his little box and handed it to her. She stuck it between her teeth, chewing on it experimentally. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, copying his posture. When he twirled his stick with two fingers, she twirled hers.

Hunter’s heart squeezed. This wasn’t the first time she imitated someone she admired, but that was just it. Somehow, Crosshair had won Omega over, and Hunter still didn’t know quite how it happened. She was prone to seeing the good in others, which was an admirable quality, but it also made her naive. It was Hunter’s job to protect her from anyone who might take advantage of that innocence. Crosshair had yet to tell them anything about his separation from the Empire. He’d barely told them anything about Tantiss, and Hunter had a gut feeling he was keeping something important from them about this mission too. Crosshair had betrayed them before. Maybe it was the inhibitor chip at the beginning, but even after he claimed to have it out, he still chose the Empire over his family. If he did that again, it would break Omega’s heart.

“Dropping out of hyperspace in 15 minutes,” Echo said from the pilot’s chair.

Crosshair dropped his toothpick into the considerable pile he’d built up on the floor and headed for the back of the ship where they had stored their supplies and weapons. He was the only one not armored up yet. The rest of them had donned their heavy blacks intended for assignments on snowy planets under their armor. They had not been able to locate the ones that used to belong to Crosshair, so they gave him Tech’s. Maybe that was why he hadn’t put them on yet.

That was not the only thing they gave him to wear. Before they left, Hunter saw Wrecker push a heavy case into Crosshair’s arms. It contained his old Clone Force 99 armor. They’d never considered getting rid of it. Even though Hunter had long since given up on the idea of Crosshair ever coming home, that armor stood for something. It was a symbol of who his lost brother used to be. He wasn’t sure how to feel about letting him wear it now when so much had changed and everything about him was shrouded in mystery.

They dropped out of hyperspace in front of a completely white planet.

“On approach,” Echo said. He and Hunter both scanned the readouts as they popped up on the console. “Reading minimal life signs, if any.”

When they flew down to the coordinates Crosshair provided them, they faced no resistance. No Imperial came onto their comms to request the fake code Echo procured for them, no ships escorted them to the base, and no cannons fired at them. Below them stretched an empty snowy field between mountains. The base was buried. The only remnants were the tops of some kind of sensor equipment and a few partially visible roofs.

“No heat signatures inside of the depots, and nothing on comms,” Echo reported after they landed. “There’s no one here.”

That was a big divergence from the outpost Crosshair described. While it might make their job easier, it also made Hunter wary that the one piece of intel Crosshair actually detailed for them turned out to be wrong.

He ran quick eyes over Omega before they exited the ship. She was dressed in the warm outfit they found her in when they picked her up on the Ryloth moon. It had been washed, but was still a bit loose. She put her cap on her head. It covered her ears, but left the skin of her face exposed. He hoped she would be warm enough. Her energy bow had been lost back on Ord Mantell, so she didn’t have a weapon. Luckily, it looked like she might not need one.

Batcher was the first one to bolt off the ship. She bounded onto the hard-packed snow and took to sniffing the ground. Omega had insisted on bringing her. Hunter had to admit, he was warming up to the idea of having such a big pet that had shown itself to be gentle but also naturally protective of Omega. The extra security of brawn and sharp teeth couldn’t hurt.

Everyone else stopped at the bottom of the ramp to have a look around. Hunter reached out with his senses to see if he could pick up any power source that remained operational. Faint waves came from one of the submerged buildings, and other, shorter frequencies brushed lightly against him from various distant points around the perimeter that coincided with the tops of the sensors sticking out of the snow. Something had been left on.

“Hey!” Wrecker said. “It does still fit.”

Hunter looked over his shoulder. Crosshair came down the ramp in his full red and black armor. Every piece was in place. The reflector discs on his belt. The extra plate on the right side of his cuirass to cushion the recoil from his rifle. The thin support shelf on his left pauldron. The wider space in his helmet visor around his right eye. For a split second, Hunter felt like he was with his squad on another mission for the Republic. But the moment passed quickly. Tech was missing, and the man walking out of the ship was not the same brother he used to know.

Crosshair tugged on the chestplate as though uncomfortable. He stopped halfway down the ramp when a large bird of prey screeched overhead. He tracked its flight for a few seconds and then sighed and walked the rest of the way down.

Hunter turned to him. “You said this outpost was remote, not abandoned entirely.”

“Well, I didn’t get daily intel briefings in my cell,” Crosshair quipped.

“I get the feeling there’s more to this place than you’re saying.”

Omega grabbed his arm. “He said he told us everything, Hunter. How could he know the Empire left?”

Hunter immediately decided he didn’t like her defending Crosshair against him. He didn’t like her taking the side of someone who might not be trustworthy, and he didn’t like the hot jealousy it stirred up inside him.

Her attention was diverted when Batcher, milling about in the snow a few yards away, barked and growled agitatedly. “Batcher,” Omega called, “what is it?” She jogged over to try and calm her with scratches and soft words.

“What’s goin’ on?” Wrecker said.

Hunter tilted his head. If he stretched his hearing, he could just pick up a faint, high ringing sound. He raised his macrobinoculars to examine the nearest sensor. “The sensors are giving off a high-frequency tone. She must be reacting to it.” He looked back at Crosshair. “What are the sensors for?”

“Perimeter detection against local raiders,” Crosshair said.

Another bit of information that should have been shared earlier. “You didn’t think to warn us about these raiders before?”

“No,” Crosshair growled. “They were all dealt with.”

“And how do you know that?”

“Take a guess.”

Hunter moved in front of Crosshair so that he could face him directly. “Just following orders?”

“If you’re scared, why don’t you wait on the ship?”

Echo stepped between them and pushed them apart. “Hey, kill each other later. We’re here for a reason. Let’s crack into the datapad and get out of here.”

Hunter ground his teeth as he stomped after Echo toward the main building. He didn’t know how much longer he could put off demanding an explanation. Crosshair’s secrets might jeopardize this mission and put them all at risk.

Behind him, he heard Omega say, “I said talk to him, not argue with him.”

To which Crosshair replied, “He started it.”

The main door to the base was closed and half-buried in the snow. Hunter and Wrecker bent down to scoop handfuls away from it. Hunter was about to ask Echo if he had any shovels on board his ship when Batcher, watching their efforts, jumped forward and began to dig. Her big paws and muscular front legs were so effective at the task that they had to step back to avoid being showered in the snow she displaced. She dug a big hole far more quickly than they could have without her.

After she dug all the way down to the ground, she popped her head up and woofed. Hunter patted her head. “Good girl.”

Wrecker slid down to pry the doors open. Hunter, Echo, and Omega got their flashlights up, but Crosshair entered first, which was unusual. His job as a sniper had always been to hang back and pick off hostiles from a distance. Now he positioned himself in front of Omega with his rifle up, ready to shoot at the first sign of anything living.

It was a moot point. Not only had their ship’s scanners not picked up any heat signatures, but Hunter would have been able to hear anyone in here from outside. Had Crosshair forgotten everything about how they used to operate?

Omega quickly found the only operational terminal inside the dark bunker. All remaining power was being funneled to the perimeter sensors, which Crosshair said were no longer needed, so she and Echo began rerouting it to the mainframe console where they could plug in the datapad.

As they worked, Crosshair quietly moved off behind a wall of crates. After a few moments of suspicious silence, Hunter peered around the corner. There was a pile of dusty clone helmets against the wall. Crosshair stared down at one in his hands. He set it on a box, making sure to turn it so that it faced forward, and then picked up the rest one at a time and reverently put them in a line. It was perhaps the strangest thing Hunter had ever seen him do. Since when did Crosshair care about regs?

Suddenly, the lights came on.

“That should do it,” Omega said.

The console powered up and Echo connected the datapad. “Ah, it’s working. Look at this manifest. There are even more clone prisoners on Tantiss than we thought.”

Batcher whined. Hunter didn’t think much of it until she persisted, smelling the ground and glancing at the door. He frowned, focusing his senses. He couldn’t smell anything concerning. There had been a faint rumble coming through the floor since the power flicked on, but that could be the older model grid this base used.

Crosshair made his way to the door.

“Where are you going?” Hunter said.

“To check the perimeter.”

Either he no longer trusted Hunter’s senses, or that was a cover for doing something else. Hunter’s patience had reached its limit. He had to know what Crosshair was hiding. Omega was preoccupied and Wrecker and Echo were there to watch her. Hunter was getting answers now before it was too late.

He gave Crosshair a head start and then followed him outside. He kept waiting to see what Crosshair would do. Was he going to contact someone in the Empire and give them up? He wanted to believe Crosshair wouldn’t do that, especially after being an Imperial prisoner, but in Hunter’s current frame of mind, he couldn’t think what else would make Crosshair act so jittery and strange if he wasn’t planning something underhanded.

Crosshair went all the way past the ship, his footsteps crunching loudly on the snow, before he stopped. He pulled a toothpick out of his mouth and slowly turned around. “Are you going to be my shadow everywhere?”

Hunter closed the distance between them. “Enough is enough. There’s more you’re not telling us. About the Empire, about Tantiss, about this base. Maybe even about Omega. I’m done waiting. Did you think we’d take you back and not ask questions? I don’t think so. Start talking, Crosshair. Let’s start with what you did to finally get on the Empire’s bad side. Did you betray them? Like you did with us?”

Hunter saw Crosshair’s hand shake so badly that he dropped his toothpick, but now that he’d started, he couldn’t stop. Two years of resentment rushed to the surface like a geyser. “Tell me what changed. Tell me why I should let you near Omega.” He shoved Crosshair’s shoulders. “What happened, Crosshair?”

Crosshair set his mouth into a grim, straight line. “I killed an Imperial officer. So yes, I did betray them. After they betrayed me. They sent me to Tantiss for it. They tortured me for information on finding you so that they could get to Omega, but instead of talking, I risked everything to send you a message. Is that what you wanted to hear? I was almost killed sending you a warning, and you ignored it. So don’t pretend this is all about me.”

“I was against tracking down Hemlock,” Hunter spat. “I knew the odds were against us. But Tech wanted to find you.”

He knew it was a low blow to mention Tech, but he didn’t care. Crosshair hid his grimace behind a scowl. “You could have overruled him. A real sergeant would have known when to cut his losses. You made the wrong call, just like you always do. You let Omega be taken to Tantiss. She went through what she did because you failed.”

Hunter felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. Crosshair shoved him back. “You let her be taken. Even though you knew she could be my daughter!”

Hunter hated the sound of that word on Crosshair’s lips. He didn’t deserve to say it. “And what good were you? What good were you, galavanting around the Empire? You gave her up, Crosshair! You said she was mine either way, and you left. You weren’t there to protect her because you chose not to be. And now you show up acting like you care about her! You’re leading her on just to hurt her again!”

Crosshair’s eyes flashed dangerously. “You’re just angry because she escaped with my help, not yours. I’m the one who understands what she’s been through. I was the one there with her in that place. I was going to take care of her after we got away. Hide her, keep her safe.”

“Well, now you don’t have to. She’s back where she belongs. She has everything she needs. She has me.”

Crosshair sneered. “Lucky her. The father who didn’t protect her in the first place.”

Hunter was going to punch him. He was going to break his nose. He was about to raise his fist when Batcher barked somewhere behind him at the same time the ground shook. He froze. The ground shouldn’t be shaking outside if it was from the electricity. Ice creaked beneath his feet. The rumbling grew louder, like a train barrelling down a rail line.

“Move!” He pushed Crosshair to the side without thinking.

Something massive burst out of the ground behind them. Something so massive that it broke the ice they stood on, tipping it upward and sending them flying. Hunter found the ground again quickly. When he tumbled to a stop, he sat up and saw an enormous creature. Its long, limbless body was covered in bony spikes. It had a mouth big enough to bite the Marauder in half. It belted a roaring, screeching noise into the sky. Then it smashed back into the ground, sending cracks snaking through the ice.

Hunter and Crosshair ran for the bunker as soon as they got their feet under them. The cracks spread at almost the same speed, bolting under Echo’s ship. Hunter saw the ship sink down into the snow out of the corner of his eye, but he kept his focus on their goal. The others were at the door of the base, waving them on. Wrecker shouted, “Hurry!”

The rumbling was chasing them. The wyrm-like thing had burrowed back underground and plowed through the earth at a rapid pace. It left a trail of upturned snow that closed in on them. They dove into the bunker and Wrecker closed the door a split second before it reached them. The whole building shook with the impact of the creature’s head hitting metal.

“I guess we know what the perimeter sensors are meant to keep out,” Omega said.

“You said they were for local raiders,” Hunter shot at Crosshair.

Crosshair gasped to catch his breath. “That’s what I was told.”

The bunker quaked again as the wyrm rammed into the doors.

“Great,” Wrecker said. “Now what?”

“No chance of digging out the ship with that thing out there,” Hunter said.

Another hit made dust rain down from the ceiling rafters.

Echo ran back to the terminal. “We have to restore power to the sensor beacons.” Hunter pulled Omega further back from the door as Echo clicked through the settings. After a moment, Echo gave a frustrated groan. “When we rerouted energy here, it shut off the source. The fuse box for the grid is at the back of this compound.”

“One of us needs to get over there and reset the grid manually,” Crosshair said.

“I’ll do it!” Wrecker offered.

“And I can get the defense system reactivated once power’s back,” Omega said.

A tremor shook the room again. The creature growled underground.

“We’ll have to draw that thing beyond the sensors before they reboot or we’ll be trapped inside the perimeter with it,” Hunter said.

Crosshair hoisted his rifle. “I’ll handle it.”

Hunter didn’t like the prospect. It might take more than one of them to get the wyrm’s attention, and he was the one who could sense it before it surfaced. He once would have trusted Crosshair to faithfully complete his part of a mission without supervision, but those days were over. “Not alone. We’ll do it together.”

Crosshair glared at him. “You sure about that?”

Hunter glared right back. He still wanted to punch him.

Echo looked between them. “I’ll spot you both from the tower. Let’s get to it before it tears this place apart.”

They had to wait until the creature gave up trying to get into the bunker and tunneled elsewhere. Then Wrecker opened the doors. Hunter stuck his blaster out first. He motioned for everyone else to stay behind him as he listened. He could feel vibrations through his feet as the creature traveled through the ground somewhere in the vicinity. Most likely around the ship. They couldn’t let it drag their only transport off this frozen wasteland further down.

He held up three fingers. He took each one down silently, waiting for the perfect time. When the vibrations grew faint, he dropped the last finger and took off over the hard-packed snow. Crosshair came behind him. Apparently, Batcher decided this was a fun game, because she joined in. Hunter sprinted as fast as he could toward the distant beacon. He outpaced Crosshair by a wide margin, which was another peculiarity. Crosshair, with his over-long legs, used to be the fastest of them.

Just as Hunter made it past the ship, a moving line of disturbed snow appeared to his right.

“Three o’clock!” Crosshair called. A few shots rang out from his rifle.

Hunter veered to the side. He jumped just before the wyrm made its violent reappearance aboveground. He tucked and rolled through a storm of flying ice. It plunged back downward as he skidded to a stop. Rapid cracks formed from both its entry and exit points. They shot so quickly underneath him that Hunter only realized what was about to happen a second before it did.

The ground fell away beneath him. He gasped as he hurdled straight down through a narrow hole. He thought he heard Crosshair calling his name, and then everything went fuzzy.

He came to, only then realizing that he must have been briefly knocked out, with his head pounding and his shoulder aching. Everything around him was bracingly cold. He sat up with a groan.

“Hunter!” Crosshair’s voice, coming from above.

“I’m alright.” The only source of light was the opening to the hole he just fell through directly over his head. It was several yards up. Hunter fumbled with his flashlight. He pushed himself to his feet and shone it around. He was in a wide underground tunnel. Most likely carved some time ago by the very same wyrm they were trying to avoid now. It had completely frozen over.

“Can you get outside the perimeter from down there?” Crosshair yelled.

Hunter didn’t see many other options. His grappling hook wouldn’t stick to the slippery ice. “I’ll follow the tunnel north and find out.”

“We’ll track you from up here.”

Ignoring his newly acquired aches and pains, Hunter ran down the dark tunnel with only his flashlight to illuminate the uneven walls and possible pitfalls. This was the worst case scenario. He had been hoping to keep an eye on Crosshair by doing this part of the job together. Now he was at his mercy. If Crosshair didn’t find or provide him a way back to the surface, he could get lost and freeze to death down here. Assuming the wyrm didn’t find him first.

“Target spotted,” Echo said over the comms a minute later. “It’s right on your tail. About a hundred meters and closing.”

“Got it.” Crosshair sounded winded. Vibrations shook the tunnel from every side. Hunter couldn’t discern where they were coming from. He heard the distant, angry cry of the creature.

“I think I just made it angrier,” Crosshair said.

Hunter tapped his helmet comm. “Fantastic.”

As he ran, he heard Wrecker report that he had reached the fuse box and Omega walk him through resetting it over the comms.

Hunter climbed over a chunk of ice that was too big to walk around and kept going. The tunnel zigzagged back and forth. He couldn’t tell if he was still headed north.

“You’re about 400 meters from the perimeter,” Crosshair said.

“No sign of that thing,” Echo added.

The ceiling and walls trembled around Hunter with the sound of a low growl. Shards of ice tumbled against his helmet. He was running out of time.

“We found a weak point in the ice,” Crosshair panted. “We’ll try to dig through.”

“You’ll try?” Hunter repeated.

“Glad you heard me properly.”

A stitch was forming in Hunter’s side. Surely he had to be getting close. He swiveled to the side as larger chunks of ice almost fell right on top of him. “Things are getting close in here,” he said into the comms. “Am I gonna have a way out or not?”

“If you end up where we hope you do,” Crosshair said. He sounded worried. It wasn’t comforting.

“Boom! Power’s online!” Wrecker cried.

“Hunter, should I activate the beacon?” Omega asked.

“Wait! We have to make sure the wyrm is past the perimeter.” As he rounded a bend, a welcome beam of light shone from a hole in the ceiling. Snowflakes drifted down, glittering in the sun. Hunter dashed underneath the opening. Crosshair and Batcher peered down at him from above. They must be past the beacons.

“Get up here!” Crosshair shouted.

“Not yet. Where’s the wyrm? I can’t find it.”

Crosshair hit the edges of the hole with the butt of his rifle, making it bigger. As bits of ice fell around him, Hunter stood still to listen. Another growl rumbled through the tunnel. This time it was directly to his right. It was followed by an ear-splitting roar. Hunter whipped his flashlight toward the part of the tunnel he had just traversed. And there was the eyeless face, all teeth and spikes, hurdling toward him. “It’s past the perimeter!”

He heard Crosshair tell Omega to activate the sensors as he tried to jump for the opening. It was too high up. Crosshair lowered the handle of his rifle down into the hole. Hunter jumped again, the creature gaining on him, and grabbed it. His feet scraped for purchase against the ice. Crosshair grunted as he heaved him up. He took Hunter’s arm to pull him the rest of the way.

Just as soon as he was topside, the wyrm exploded out of the ground right beside them in apparent pursuit of its elusive snack. Hunter, Crosshair, and Batcher took off back toward the base. The sensor was just in front of them. A high-pitched frequency crescendoed to life. The second Hunter passed it, he dove and slid on the ice. The creature howled.

But it did not advance. Only yards away from where Hunter and Crosshair sat behind the sensor, the wyrm shook its head. Batcher barked at it. It made to move forward, but jerked away from the tone of the sensor. With one final cry, it crashed back underground.

Batcher kept barking, her thin little tail wagging, as Hunter and Crosshair sat back with equal sighs of exhaustion. They took off their helmets and gulped in fresh, cold air. Hunter closed his eyes. He could feel the vibrations of the creature getting further and further away.

When he had finally caught his breath and opened his eyes, he found Crosshair watching him. He looked genuinely…concerned. The cynical sneer that usually adorned his face was gone, the frown lines smoothed out. He looked like…

He looked like the brother Hunter remembered. The one he used to rely on. Batcher pranced over to Crosshair triumphantly and he pet her with his shaking hand. They sat there for another few minutes. Hunter didn’t know what to say. He had been put in a position where he had to depend on Crosshair to survive, and he did not let him down. That was not the outcome he would have expected at the start of this day. Silently, Hunter nodded his thanks. Crosshair nodded back.

Hunter pushed himself to his feet. He held out a hand to Crosshair, who accepted the help up. As they made their way back to the building, Crosshair leaned on his rifle like a cane.

“You hurt?” Hunter asked.

“No.” Though his feet were dragging, Crosshair straightened. He had staunchly refused to be scanned by AZI ever since he got back. Now Hunter wondered if maybe he should have pressed the issue. He had no way of knowing if one of the things Crosshair was hiding was damage he sustained on Tantiss. It was a sobering thought.

When they neared the base, trudging tiredly with their helmets under their arms, Wrecker spotted them from the door. He made a dash for them, and before Hunter could ask him what was wrong, he had one big arm thrown around Hunter and the other around Crosshair. He pulled them against each other in a bone-crushing hug.

Hunter almost laughed. Growing up, it had been Wrecker’s custom to tackle anyone who had been fighting into a group hug. He hadn’t done it since before they left for their first mission.

“Alright, alright,” Hunter said, patting his arm. “Good work all around. Everyone’s okay?”

Wrecker pulled back. “All good here, Sarge.”

Hunter could see Echo and Omega waiting for them at the door. Echo had been right. Omega was invaluable to this mission. She executed her part flawlessly. Of course she did. Tech taught her well. He would have been just as proud as Hunter felt. “Then let’s get out of here.”

The only thing left to do after that was dig the ship out of the snow, which was no easy task. Echo did, in fact, have shovels on board, and Batcher provided her own help when she realized what they were doing. It was grueling work, but it provided Hunter with plenty of time to think. Some of the things Crosshair said earlier finally caught up to him. The Empire tortured Crosshair for information, but he refused to give up Omega’s location. He risked his life to try and warn them she was being targeted. When they escaped Tantiss and he had no way of knowing if the Batch was still out there, he took it upon himself to care for her.

As Hunter threw another scoop of snow behind him, he heard Omega sigh. She lowered her shovel and wiped her brow. She’d been doing her fair share of digging, but was naturally tiring quicker than the rest of them.

Hunter opened his mouth to tell her to take a break when Crosshair said, “Batcher needs some direction. See if you can show her where to dig. Otherwise she’s just making a mess.”

Omega dropped her shovel. “Okay.”

It hit Hunter almost as hard as his fall into the tunnel had: Crosshair really did care about Omega. He might even love her. Hunter shouldn’t be surprised. She had that effect on people. He just hadn’t been privy to whatever transformation had taken place that allowed Crosshair to accept and return her affection. It was such a switch from the last time they saw him.

He realized he was staring at Crosshair when his brother raised an eyebrow at him. “What?”

Hunter went back to shoveling. He needed to choose his words carefully before they spoke again. Crosshair still had secrets and Hunter still wanted to know what they were. But maybe they weren’t dangerous. Maybe he was entitled to keep some of them to himself.

Maybe it was actually for the better that he was here. There was, after all, a fifty percent chance that he was Omega’s father. And if he was, didn’t she deserve to be with him? Wasn’t it a good thing that he was fostering a relationship with her? Hunter swallowed around the lump in his throat.

The sun was sinking by the time they finally freed the ship enough for it to take off. Hunter and Crosshair were the last ones left outside. Hunter headed toward the ramp, his shovel slung over his shoulder. He kept his mouth shut when he passed by Crosshair. It was going to be a long trip back to Pabu. Once they got there, maybe tempers would have cooled enough that Hunter could pull him aside and apologize without it devolving into another fight.

“Hunter.”

Hunter stopped and turned around, surprised.

Crosshair kept his back to him. “This outpost…it was where I killed the officer. There was a clone commander named Mayday stationed here. We were sent to track down the raiders that kept pilfering supplies. He was injured in an avalanche. I dragged him through the snow for two days only for him to die when we got back to base because the Lieutenant wouldn’t send medical to save him. He said clones were expendable. So I shot him point blank.”

Hunter thought about the helmets Crosshair lined up earlier and his chest ached.

“I thought I knew what I was getting into with the Empire,” Crosshair went on. “I thought I was being a good soldier. But in the end…I was only a number.”

The pieces clicked into place. Crosshair, the sibling who always had to learn things the hard way, always had to make his own mistakes, had paid a steep price for his stubbornness. But it wasn’t all his fault. “Nobody really understood what was happening in the beginning,” Hunter said. “We didn’t know about the inhibitor chips when we fled Kamino. If we had…” Over the past two years, he had gone over a thousand scenarios in his head about how things could have gone differently. There were too many to put into words.

Crosshair looked toward the nearest mountain. “I’ve done things. Made mistakes.”

That was an apology. Hunter could hardly believe his ears. “I have regrets too, Crosshair. Plenty of them. All we can do is keep trying to be better.”

Crosshair dropped his eyes. “You were right, back on the platform on Kamino. I didn’t know what I was missing.”

Hunter put down his shovel. He came up to Crosshair and put a hand on his shoulder, turning him around to face him. “She never gave up on you. Even when the rest of us thought it would never happen, she still talked about you coming home someday.”

Crosshair wouldn’t look up at him.

“You may have missed a lot, but you have a chance to make up for lost time now. If you want to.”

“I want to.”

Hunter squeezed his shoulder. That settled it. It was time. “I think we should tell her the truth about who she is.”

Crosshair’s raised his head. “What, now?”

“No time like the present. I let fear stop me from telling her when I had the chance. Then she was taken and I regretted it every day. She could have died without knowing. I’m not taking that chance again. Now that you’re here, we can tell her together. She deserves to hear it from both of us.”

Crosshair’s eyes flicked to the ship and back. “Shouldn’t we wait until she’s home, where she feels safe?”

“We’re headed there anyway. As much as I’d like to believe the danger is past, I won’t be easy until Hemlock is dead. It’s not worth the risk of waiting. I learned that the hard way.”

“I…I haven’t thought about what to say.”

“I have. I’ll do the talking. You just need to be there.”

Hunter saw the apprehension he used to feel reflected on Crosshair’s face, but his brother nodded anyway. Hunter had given Crosshair such a hard time about keeping secrets when he’d been keeping the biggest one of all from his own daughter. It was finally time to let all the secrecy end. He gave Crosshair a small smile and they both boarded the ship.

Chapter 11

Chapter Text

Omega fell asleep almost as soon as they entered hyperspace. Echo’s ship was big enough to have a small bunk room, and Hunter found her passed out on one of the racks with her cap and shoes still on. He carefully took off the cap, covered her with a blanket, and turned out the light. No use trying to have a life-altering conversation while she was so tired. He tried to convince Crosshair to get some rest too, seeing the exhaustion in his posture, but he insisted he was fine.

Over the next few hours, Crosshair kept nodding off in his seat, but he never stayed asleep for long. He would jolt upright, fidget, chew on a toothpick, get up and pace, sit down, and start the process all over again.

“What’s with you?” Wrecker finally asked.

“We’re going to talk with Omega when she wakes up,” Hunter said.

“About what?”

“About what I should have told her a long time ago.”

“Hm,” Echo said from the pilot’s chair. “It’s about kriffing time. I still don’t understand why you waited.”

“It’s not exactly an easy conversation to have,” Crosshair muttered.

“Better late than never,” Hunter said. “How long ‘til we get to Pabu?”

“We’re making one detour first,” Echo said. “Greggor needs a fast pick up. It’s not far out of our way.”

“And how long until we get to his location?”

“About two standard hours.”

Hunter drummed his fingers on his knee. He didn’t want to have a private family chat with the eccentric former captain aboard. He was considering waking Omega up when he heard her yawn in the other room. A minute later, she emerged, rubbing her eyes. Batcher raised her head and wagged her tail.

Hunter stood and retrieved a protein bar and a hydration pack. “Hey kid,” he said as he handed her the items. “How’d you sleep?”

She opened the bar and took a lazy bite. “Good.” She sat down on the floor next to Batcher, trailing scratches down the hound’s humped back with her fingernails while she ate.

Hunter nodded to Crosshair. They both took a seat just in front of her in the rear chairs of the co*ckpit. “Omega,” Hunter began, “there’s something we need to tell you.”

She took a drink. “Yeah?”

Hunter steeled himself. He’d been over this speech a thousand times in his head. He just had to put it into words. “Do you remember when we got you back from Cad Bane and we discovered that the Kaminoans had put the bounty on you because they wanted to use your DNA to create a line of enhanced soldiers?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, that wasn’t all we discovered that day.”

Omega smiled when Batcher licked her hand. “It wasn’t?”

“No. Not long after we first met you, Tech analyzed your genetic profile stored in the Kaminoan records and concluded that you were an enhanced clone, like us. But after you were taken by bounty hunters, he dug deeper and discovered an encrypted portion in your file. It revealed that only half of your genetics could be attributed to an enhanced Fett clone. The other half came from a nat-born human.”

Omega scrunched up her nose. “That doesn’t make sense. That’s not how clones are made. They only need genetic material from one host, not two.”

“You’re right, that’s how clones are created. But that’s not how regular children are born. You weren’t engineered in a lab like we were, Omega. You were born.”

Her hand stilled on Batcher’s back. “Wait…what? You’re saying I’m—I’m not a clone?”

“No, kid. You’re the daughter of a clone. Natural born.”

“But…” She looked between Hunter and Crosshair and further back to where Wrecker and Echo were watching quietly from their places in the co*ckpit. “But Nala Se said I was. And I grow like a clone! Lyana is twelve, but she’s my size. I’m not even six! I thought normal humans aged slower.”

“I know. That’s something you inherited, unfortunately,” Hunter said. “In your file there was a report from the captain who found you as a baby. You were born on a planet called Agamar. The woman who surrendered you said she was your aunt and that your mother had recently passed away. She gave you to clones because she knew your father was one.”

“Nala Se said clones couldn’t produce children.”

“She was mostly right. That’s how they designed the system to work. A clone would have to be defective to circumvent that.”

“Defective. But there were ever only four…” She shut her mouth with a click. Her eyes did another quick run over Hunter, Crosshair, and Wrecker. He could practically see the gears turning in her head.

Hunter swallowed. He could hear Crosshair’s heart hammering away beside him. “Our squad was on Agamar during the right time frame. We spent a little time with some of the villagers there. Based on what we know, and because clone DNA is identical and prevents an accurate paternity test, there are two possibilities for where you came from. It’s extremely likely that either Crosshair or I are…” He took a breath. “Are your father.”

Silence reigned in the ship, only filled by the hum of hyperspace.

Omega blinked. She stared at Hunter and then at Crosshair. “But that’s not… That doesn’t…” She went quiet. Her gaze fell to the floor. “That can’t be true. I’m a clone! I was made for a purpose. Made to be special. Just like all of you.”

“You are special,” Hunter said. “So much more than any of us. And that has nothing to do with how you were created.”

“So if I’m a nat-born and one of you is my father and my mother’s dead, then…you left me? You gave me to the Kaminoans as a baby? You didn’t want me?”

Hunter leaned forward to put a hand on her shoulder, but she leaned away from him. “We didn’t know about you, Omega,” he said gently. “The clones who picked you up brought you to Kamino, and Nala Se decided to keep you. She knew you must have been the child of an enhanced clone, but she never told us. We didn’t know anything about you until you found us on Kamino just after the war ended. And we didn’t know who you really were until Cad Bane.”

“You’ve known since then?” Tears were building up in the corners of her eyes. “You knew that one of you was my dad and you didn’t tell me?”

“I wanted to be able to tell you for certain who your father was. And I wasn’t going to know that unless you showed signs of one of our enhancements.”

“But I don’t have an enhancement, do I?” She crossed her arms, her face flushing red. “I’ve been waiting to develop one my whole life because I thought that’s what I was made for. But if I’m just a nat-born, I probably don’t even have one.”

“You might have inherited either mine or Crosshair’s. It may still manifest as you grow.”

“But I wasn’t made for anything. I don’t have a purpose. I was just a mistake.”

Hunter frowned. “No, you weren’t—”

Omega turned her accusing face to Crosshair. “And how long have you known? Did you know while we were on Tantiss?”

“I did,” he said, his voice surprisingly steady. “Hunter told me just before Tipoca City was destroyed.”

“So all that time I came to see you, sat outside your cell and talked to you, you didn’t think to mention that you might be my dad?”

“It hardly seemed like the time or place.”

She scowled back at Wrecker and Echo. “You all knew too?”

Wrecker became very interested in examining his boots. Echo said, “We had to respect Hunter’s decision. It was his to make.”

Naturally, that turned her ire back on Hunter. After giving him a look of utter betrayal, she stood up. Spinning on her heel, she ran back toward the barracks.

“Omega—” Hunter tried.

“Leave me alone!”

The door slid shut behind her. Batcher went over to it and whined.

“Well, that went well,” Crosshair said.

Hunter sighed. He had always known this reaction might be an option. It was one of the many scenarios he had gone over and one of the reasons he delayed telling her for so long. It hurt just as much as he thought it would to have her be so upset with him.

“Give her time to process,” Echo said. “She just found out her whole identity is a lie.”

“You were a big help,” Hunter grumbled.

“Just telling the truth. I knew the longer you waited, the worse the fallout would be.”

Hunter rubbed the bridge of his nose as he leaned back in his seat. He could hear Omega softly crying. It took all of his willpower not to barge in there and scoop her into his arms. The worst part—and something he had not anticipated—was that she apparently thought being naturally born was inferior to being a clone. He wasn’t sure where she got that idea. He hoped he and his brothers hadn’t inadvertently instilled that way of thinking in her.

The mood on the ship was somber after that. Omega eventually went quiet, but didn’t reappear. Hunter was caught between apprehension and relief. It felt freeing to finally have the truth out in the open. On the other hand, he was left wondering if she would ever forgive him. She was such an easy-going kid. There hadn’t been many times where she was really angry with him. What if this destroyed what they had? There had been one scenario, a pipe dream he now realized, in which he imagined she’d be happy to find out she had a father and that it could be him. She’d called him Dad twice before. She might never want to again now. The old mental image he had of collecting seashells on the beach with Omega, like a regular father and daughter might, resurfaced. He’d never forgotten it, even during the long months of her absence. He wondered if he would ever get the chance to pursue it. If she decided she hated him after this, it was unlikely.

Crosshair rubbed at his shaking hand, glancing back at the closed door every few minutes. The bond he was just beginning to build with Omega might be damaged now. Even though Hunter bore most of the blame, Crosshair was in the same boat. It was unexpectedly comforting to share the same anxiety.

After an hour or so, the ship’s comm beeped with an incoming message. It must have been text-based because Echo tapped a few controls, read something, and then frowned. He pulled the acceleration lever back and they dropped out of hyperspace.

“What’s going on?” Wrecker asked.

“Message from Rex,” Echo said as he typed something into the navicomputer. “He needs to see us urgently. Actually, he needs to see you lot. Especially Crosshair and Omega.”

“What does he want?” Crosshair said, narrowing his eyes.

“He didn’t say. Probably safer not to put details in a message. But it must be important.” He entered new coordinates, turned the ship, and then launched them back into hyperspace.

“I thought your rendezvous with Greggor was your top priority,” Hunter said.

“Yeah, well. He’ll have to wait. I’ll pick him up after dropping you off.”

“And where exactly are we headed?”

“Teth. It’s Rex’s current base of operations.”

Hunter shook his head. “Now’s not the best time for this, Echo. Omega may not be up for talking, and if Rex wants to send us on a mission, she doesn’t even have a blaster.”

“I can help with that last part. I picked this up a while ago.” Echo pulled something out of a storage compartment below the console. It looked like a pistol with extra pieces around the barrel. Echo slid a lever forward, and when two wings unfolded and a string of green energy fizzled to life between them, Hunter realized it was an energy crossbow. Not a thing you saw everyday.

“Where did you get that?” he asked.

“Ah, I’ve been a lot of places in the last few months. I’ve been modifying it. Thought I’d give it to Omega when we found her.”

Hunter was touched that though for a while it seemed like Echo was ready to give up the search, he was still preparing a specialized weapon for her under the assumption that she would be recovered.

Crosshair leaned forward. “You want to send her into the field with a weapon she’s never used before?”

“It’s not too different from what she’s used to. Just a little smaller. I think she’ll like it.”

“No,” he said firmly. “She needs to practice with that before she goes anywhere near a firefight. In fact, drop the rest of us off on Teth and take Omega with you on your pick up errand. If Rex wants to know about Tantiss, I’ll tell him.”

Echo and Wrecker turned to Hunter with raised eyebrows. None of them were used to anyone else making definitive calls when it came to Omega. That had always been his job. Hunter bit his tongue, reminding himself that Crosshair had a legitimate say in it, and snapping at him wasn’t going to make anything better. He had also only ever really seen Omega in action during their escape from Tantiss. He hadn’t seen for himself how they’d trained her and how far she’d come. He’d also never seen how dejected she became when they tried to leave her behind, even when it was for her own safety. “She’s more capable than you’re giving her credit for,” he said. “We should leave it up to her.”

“You were the one who wanted her to stay on Pabu instead of going to the outpost,” Crosshair said.

“And we wouldn’t have been able to complete the mission without her. I’m not saying we’ll take her into enemy territory. We don’t know what Rex wants. Let’s find out more before we decide. He must have a reason for requesting to see both of you. Whatever it is, we can always refuse if it puts her in danger.”

Crosshair crossed his arms. “Oh, we will. I’ll take her home myself if I have to. I still can’t believe the kinds of places you used to bring her.”

“Well, we didn’t have much choice. Even when she stayed on the ship alone she got into trouble.”

“Hm. Now that I believe.”

A smile twitched on Hunter's lips as he remembered a younger and smaller Omega sneaking off the Marauder and consequently releasing a rancor to free the Batch from Zygerrian slavers. “I’ll let her know where we’re going. Then we’ll see what she wants to do.”

He went to stand outside the barracks door. All was quiet inside, but he could tell from the pace of Omega’s heartbeat that she was awake. He tapped on the door with his knuckles. “Omega, we got a transmission from Rex. He’s asking to see you and Crosshair. You can come if you want, but you don’t have to. Echo’s going on ahead to get Greggor after he drops us off. If you would rather go with him, then Crosshair, Wrecker, and I will handle whatever Rex wants and we’ll meet up with you later.” There was no response. “You can think about it and let us know what you decide.”

He went back to his chair. Another long hour passed in which Hunter now worried not only about Omega’s emotional turmoil, but also about what Rex could need from her so urgently. He must have discovered something about Tantiss. Maybe he needed her and Crosshair to verify certain details before he acted. But why ask for both of them? Wouldn’t Crosshair, a soldier, be a better source for things like schematics and troop movements? Surely his intel would be enough if Omega decided not to go.

Suddenly, the barracks door whooshed open. Both Crosshair and Hunter immediately spun their chairs around. Omega marched up to them. She crossed her arms and hit them with a look so accusatory and hostile that for a second Hunter was convinced she really was Crosshair’s daughter.

“What was my mother’s name?” she said.

Honestly, Hunter had expected questions like that to come up once Omega learned the truth, just not so soon or so defiantly. It threw him off. “What?”

“My mother. If one of you is my father, and I was made the regular way, then you must have known her.”

Hunter cringed internally. He had dreaded this part for a while. He was going to have to admit that he barely remembered anything about her mother, much less the young woman’s name. He was going to have to reveal that he had only acted as he did because he’d been too drunk to think straight, and that was why his memory was hazy.

“Amira or Rendari,” Crosshair said. “They were sisters.”

Hunter stared at him, wondering if he was making that up. But his heart rate didn’t increase like it might if he were lying.

Crosshair shrugged. “My memory is better than yours.”

Omega took a moment to absorb that information. “And what’s my real name? What did my mother call me? I know Nala Se is the one who decided on Omega.”

“We don’t know,” Hunter said. “If your aunt told the clone captain your name, he didn’t include it in his report.”

She dropped her eyes, still frowning. In a quieter voice she said, “And what would you have named me?”

Hunter would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about it, but he’d never made a decision. There had always been so much else going on. “I’m not sure.”

She turned her frown on Crosshair, but he must not have had an answer either because he stayed quiet.

Omega raised her chin. “I’m going with you to see Rex.”

“He might make you talk about Tantiss,” Crosshair said.

“I’ll talk about it then! Even if I’m not a clone, I still want to help the ones trapped there.”

Without another word to anyone, she went back to the bunkroom and stayed there for the remainder of the trip.

Chapter 12

Chapter Text

The sun was setting on Teth when they arrived at a dilapidated, cylindrical temple sitting on a high plateau. Rex was waiting for them, and so was another clone Hunter recognized. Captain Howzer. When the ramp lowered and everyone aside from Echo exited ship, Howzer was already scowling at them.

“They don’t look happy to see us,” Wrecker said. Then he laughed. “Just like old times, huh?”

Rex seemed more concerned than hostile, but either way, unhappy was an apt term.

“Thanks for coming,” Rex said when he met them on the rocky landing strip. He eyed Batcher curiously and took an extra moment to nod and smile at Omega, who trailed in the back. She hadn’t spoken for the remainder of the trip here. Even when Hunter asked if she was hungry or needed anything just before they arrived, she ignored him. The silent treatment was a new tactic. He couldn’t say he was a fan.

“Good to see you Rex,” Hunter said.

“Wish I felt the same,” Howzer snapped. “I have unfinished business with this one.” He glared daggers at Crosshair. “Remember me?”

Crosshair may have appeared stoic to most observers, but Hunter could read the apprehension in the way his eyebrow twitched.

“Surprised I’m alive?” Howzer said. “Most of my squad from Ryloth is dead because of you.”

Rex put a hand on his shoulder. “Easy, Howzer. I know you two have a history, but we’re all on the same side now.” Echo must have sent him a report after debriefing Crosshair and Omega. Howzer huffed and kept his glare in place.

“Why’d you call us here, Captain?” Hunter asked.

“We have something to show you. Follow me.”

Hunter and Crosshair exchanged a look as Rex turned and headed to the base. That wasn’t ominous at all. Hunter was about to follow when he heard Echo call, “Omega!” from the ship.

He looked back and saw Echo holding the energy crossbow. Omega ran over to him. Hunter was going to wait and watch her receive the special gift from her uncle, but Wrecker said, “Go ahead and see what Rex wants. I’ll wait.”

Right. Because his daughter was mad at him and probably didn’t even want him to wait for her. He sighed. He trailed after Rex, Howzer, and Crosshair, leaving Batcher with Wrecker. He hoped Omega forgave him soon or at least decided to speak to him again. He already missed the sound of her voice.

They followed Rex into the ground level of the spire. When Hunter got inside, he saw that whatever was originally here had been gutted and it was now outfitted with consoles, scanners, a holotable, and various other pieces of technology. There were crates of supplies stacked neatly against the walls. At least a dozen clones milled about in the central hub of the wide, circular room. He had a feeling there were at least twice that many throughout the base. He had noticed a few patrolling the ships docked on the landing field.

“Your numbers are growing,” he said to Rex.

“Well, we need all the help we can get. Once we find the exact coordinates of the Tantiss Base, we need to hit it hard if we’re going to pull our brothers out of there. I have questions about the facility, but that’s not the only reason I called you here.” He held up a small, round disc. “We discovered a target list from an Imperial operative.” He tossed it to Hunter. “And Omega’s on it.”

Hunter tapped a button on the disc to activate the preloaded holo image. A younger version of Omega appeared above his hand. It was how she looked when she was captured except she was dressed in a gray uniform. She had a despondent look on her face. He wondered when the image was taken. It made him feel sick to his stomach. “She was on a target list?”

“Not a surprise,” Crosshair said. He was going for casual, popping a toothpick into his mouth, but Hunter wasn’t fooled. “She escaped Imperial custody.”

Hunter wanted to believe that was the only reason. He doubted it was that simple.

“So did you,” Howzer pointed out. “But you’re on the list.”

“Guess I’m not as valuable to them.”

“Or you’re feeding them information.”

Deactivating the image, Hunter took a step forward. “You’re going to have to back down, Captain.” He may have had his own suspicions about Crosshair too at first, but now that he understood more of what happened to him, he wasn’t going to stand there any let someone slander his brother.

“You expect us to believe he was held on Tantiss for months, but he doesn’t know how to get back there?”

“Whether you believe me or not, it’s the truth,” Crosshair said. He and Howzer now stood a mere foot apart with matching scowls. Crosshair leaned back. “But I’m not loyal to the Empire any longer.”

Howzer grunted. “Your squad may trust you, but I don’t.”

The door they’d come through slid open and Omega, Wrecker, and Batcher walked in. Omega held her new crossbow with both hands, smiling down at it. She looked up and must have picked up on the tension in the room by the number of frowns decorating everyone’s faces.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“The Empire’s targeting you again,” Crosshair said bluntly. Hunter tried to covertly shake his head at him. He may have always favored a straightforward approach with his squad, but he needed to learn to be gentler with Omega. It was something Tech had had to learn too. She especially didn’t need the extra stress right now when she was grappling with the truth about who she was.

Wrecker chuckled, probably noting the way Omega’s eyebrows pinched together and trying to lighten her mood. “No surprise there.”

“Why were they after you before?” Rex asked her.

Her gaze dropped to the dirty floor. “To force Nala Se to cooperate and conduct certain experiments.”

“Which were what?”

That was a question Hunter never thought to ask. It hardly mattered to him what Hemlock was forcing Nala Se to do or what the Empire’s greater goals were. He only cared what had been done to his kid throughout the process. While every hint of abuse she’d suffered was outraging, after hearing her retelling back on Pabu he was relieved to find that it was not quite as bad as he’d been imagining. She was imprisoned, isolated, used as manipulation, had her blood taken against her will, and was physically struck at least once. All of that was horrible, but in those dark days when their fruitless search for her grew increasingly desperate, his mind conjured up all methods of torture that might be done to his daughter. He thought he might get her back only after irreparable damage had been done to her body. Or that he might not get her back at all.

“She was working on something involving M-count,” Omega said. “I don’t know what that means, but they were taking blood samples from everyone, even me.”

“M-count?” The concerned expression Rex had been wearing since they landed deepened. It made Hunter’s blood pressure tick up a notch.

“You know what that is?” he asked.

“Well, I’ve heard it mentioned before. But I can’t say for sure.” Rex went down to one knee in front of Omega so that he was on her eye level. Hunter could tell he was doing his best to smooth out the worry lines on his face. “What else can you tell us? Any information you have about Tantiss and what they’re doing there will help us figure out how to recover our brothers.”

Omega bit her lip. It hadn’t been long since she’d relived her experience by answering Echo’s questions. Now here she was being asked to do it again while she was already reeling from learning she wasn’t a clone. Hunter moved beside her. He would have put a hand on her back if he was sure she wouldn’t shrug him off. “Does she have to do this right now, Rex? It’s not really the best time—”

“It’s okay,” Omega interrupted. She took a deep breath. Raising her head high, she launched into her story. She retold much of what she did before about her daily duties with Nala Se and Emerie. She left out the story of Hemlock pushing her into a console and her resulting injury. But she included a detail this time that she hadn’t mentioned before. “Every day, after I brought the blood samples to Nala Se, she would take mine off of the tray and destroy it before it could be tested with the others. She never explained why. It wasn’t until the day the Emperor came to Tantiss that she told me I’d be in danger if they tested my sample.”

“The Emperor?” Hunter repeated. He turned to Crosshair. “You failed to mention that.”

“It’s not like we encountered him,” Crosshair said.

Omega went on, “That’s when she gave me her datapad and told me to escape.” She recounted she and Crosshair’s escape through the kennels, trek through the jungle, and stealing one of the ships that came after them to get away. “There wasn’t enough time to free the other clones,” she finished. “We have to find a way to get them out.”

Rex patted her shoulder. “We will. Thank you, Omega.”

She hung her head. Hunter could practically feel the cloud of gloom hanging around her. He ached to pull her into his arms, if only she would let him. He swore that would be the last time she would be made to talk about Tantiss unless she brought it up first.

The door opened again and a clone came in carrying a tray in one hand and a big bowl in the other. “Chow time!” he cried with a smile. “Greggor’s recipe, with a few of my own spicy modifications.”

Wrecker perked up. “Oh, now you’re talkin’!” He automatically followed the food as it was taken across the room to a table. Batcher did too, her nose upturned and drool slithering down her jaw.

Hunter risked touching Omega’s shoulder. “Why don’t you go eat something? We’ve got it handled from here. You did good.”

Her posture didn’t change. She slinked off after Wrecker, her eyes downcast. Hunter sighed as Rex stood up. Surely that was all the captain needed. They’d been alerted that Omega was an Imperial target and she’d shared what she knew about Tantiss. As soon as Echo returned, they could get out of here and go back to the safety of Pabu.

“Wait,” Crosshair said just as Howzer and Rex took a step toward the food. “There’s more you should know. Not all of the clones on Tantiss are prisoners. Some are loyal to the Empire. There is a division of clones trained as specialized operatives and initiated into a secret deep cover program run by Hemlock. Their identities are erased. They undergo conditioning. The few that make it through come out…different.”

“If the program’s so secretive, how do you know about it?” Howzer asked suspiciously.

“Because they tried to make me into one of them.”

“What?” Hunter said. Yet another thing he’d failed to mention. Even if Crosshair was slowly regaining trust with his brothers, he had said precious little about his time on Tantiss. Hunter assumed that it was difficult to talk about and was trying to respect that, but this seemed like something that should have been shared. “What did they do to you?”

“They have…methods of attempting to alter brain chemistry. It didn’t work on me. Being defective is in my nature.”

Hunter thought about the dead clone Rex had shown them on Coruscant who had tried to assassinate Senator Chuchi. The man had a clone face and standard haircut, but no other distinctive markings. He was like a carbon copy, more generic than a shiny. “You’ve encountered one before,” he said to Rex. “The assassin on Coruscant.”

“We’ve known they existed,” Rex said, “but never knew exactly what they were.” He and Howzer looked at one another knowingly, and Hunter didn’t like the unease he read there.

“What aren’t you telling us?”

“We captured one,” Rex admitted. “We tried questioning him, but he hasn’t been very cooperative.”

Crosshair was suddenly very alert. His body went rigid. “You have one here? Alive?” Rex nodded. “Impossible. The Empire would be on top of us already. They have ways of tracking their operatives.”

“We scanned him,” Howzer said. “He’s clear.”

Crosshair crushed his toothpick in his fist. “It’s not the kind of tracker your scans would pick up. Hemlock’s smarter than that!”

Hunter put a hand on his chestplate, hoping to calm him. The level of fear in his eyes was disconcerting. “Where is the operative?” he said. “Show us.”

* * * * *

Every nerve in Crosshair’s body was on high alert. They didn’t understand. They didn’t know. The clones who had been conditioned by Hemlock we’re human anymore. They were flesh droids. Their brains had been shocked to the point that they no longer functioned independently of orders. They’d do anything they were told to, even kill themselves and each other. Crosshair knew. The doctors had tried to override his will, tried to crush him, erase him. They almost succeeded. They might have if he didn’t have Omega to get him through it. He knew she needed him, and it kept him fighting.

He glanced over at the table on the other side of the room as Rex led them around the central console. Wrecker was eating with his regular gusto, but Omega despondently stirred the contents of her bowl with her spoon. She got up and put her bowl on the ground for Batcher to eat instead. Crosshair knew they shouldn’t have brought her here. Rex didn’t know what he was asking, making her talk about Tantiss. Crosshair should have spoken up sooner. He should have spared her that.

Except, he didn’t know about her blood samples being destroyed. Somehow, throughout all their time together as captives, she never told him that. It had to be significant, and it made anxiety swirl in his gut. He had always known it was a bad sign that Nala Se told Omega to escape on the same day the Emperor visited.

Rex took them to a storage closet in one wall that was evidently serving as a holding cell. Crosshair was the last to file into the small space behind the others. As soon as he saw the black-armored clone with his hands clamped behind his back, he stopped in his tracks.

He recognized this man. He wasn’t sure how he knew. They made all the regs they conditioned look exactly the same. But this was one of the clones that was led to the chamber alongside Crosshair and tortured everyday. This was one that eventually forgot his name when asked. Maybe it was something about the set of his eyes. During a brief break in the electric shocks to his brain one day, Crosshair turned his head to the side and saw this clone get out of his pod. He answered the doctor’s questions. She told the hovering medical droid to implant a biotracker in him. As the droid stuck him in the neck with a needle, the man looked over at Crosshair. It was the same pair of eyes boring into him now.

Crosshair took a step back. If this clone had been compromised, it would not be long before another operative arrived to neutralize him. They would stop at nothing, eliminate anyone in their path to accomplish that goal. That was how the Empire operated. That was how they kept their secrets. And Omega was here. They could have unwittingly put her in the most dangerous position possible. “We have to leave. Now.”

“You want answers so badly, why aren’t you asking him?” the operative said in a low voice. “Right, brother?”

Howzer turned his ever-accusing face to Crosshair, his hand resting on his blaster.

“He’s lying,” Crosshair said through a dry mouth. Even if they were all clones, he’d never considered anyone but his squad his brothers.

“You were right about one thing,” the unnamed clone said. “They are coming. For all of you.”

The whole base shook. Every soldier in the room snapped to attention. They recognized the sound of an explosion when they heard it. It came from somewhere outside.

Rex shoved his helmet on his head and tapped the side. “Comms are down.”

The operative started laughing, disturbing and unhinged.

“Crosshair’s right,” Rex said. “We need to move out. Now!”

Howzer opened the door. At that very instant, as though it had been waiting, a bolt from a sniper rifle flew between them. They instinctively pressed against the walls of the closet. Smoke reached Crosshair’s nostrils. The operative now had a perfect, burning hole in his chest where his heart used to be.

“We got a shooter out here!” Wrecker shouted.

The clones rushed out of the closet and dove behind storage crates for cover. Wrecker had Omega stuffed behind another set. He put a big hand on her head to be sure she stayed down, then stood up and began a barrage of rapid fire into the spot where the sniper shot originated from. The few other clones that were in the room joined in.

Crosshair snapped the two pieces of his rifle together. This was the last situation he wanted Omega to be in. He knew it, he knew it. He should have insisted she go with Echo. She may have been subjected to a firefight when they were escaping Tantiss, but they had little choice in that. This time it was preventable. And that perfectly timed, perfectly aimed sniper shot… A clone didn’t have to be enhanced to be a good sniper, but Crosshair couldn’t help thinking about those four enhanced clones Hemlock had shown him. The ones that may never have had free will to begin with. If one of them was here… Cold sweat slid down his back.

Crouching and putting on his helmet, he looked through his rifle’s scope. Their target was also taking shelter. He couldn’t get a clear shot.

“Nemec,” Rex said, “we need to get comms online so we can initiate the evacuation plan.”

A clone with wavy green lines painted on his helmet nodded. He crept forward as the rest of them traded bolts with the elusive shooter. Nemec made it to the main console, kneeling behind it and reaching only his hand up to tap at the controls.

“What do we do?” Crosshair heard Omega say from her hiding spot.

Just then, their attacker made a strategic move. He shot the fuse box of the main console in another perfect hit. It caused a small explosion that knocked Nemec back and started a fire.

“Backup plan,” Rex said. He motioned to a side door with his blaster. “Into the command post. I’ll cover you. …Go!”

Rex stood up, making himself the target as he fired with both of his blasters. Everyone else ran for the door he’d indicated. Wrecker made Omega go first so that he could put himself behind her. They had all just made it inside, even Nemec, who was limping, when Rex dove in after them.

An explosion rocked the temple. Something much larger than a fuse box had blown in the main room. As soon as the first small chunks of stone rained down from the ceiling, Crosshair lunged for Omega. He wasn’t alone. Hunter got there first, pulling her down and covering her with his body. Crosshair added himself to the pile. A rock hit his back. Dust clouded his vision through his helmet’s visor. The small room rapidly grew dark as rubble cascaded in front of the open door. Wrecker shouted as he intercepted a chunk of ceiling that was heading for Batcher.

When the shaking and tumbling of rocks stopped, all went eerily quiet for a few seconds. Then more than one clone groaned. Crosshair and Hunter sat up. Dust hung in the air like a haze. Omega coughed as she sat up too, thankfully unharmed. Hunter clicked on his flashlight. Part of the temple had caved in out in the main room, forming a wall of debris between them and their attacker. But that also meant they were trapped in here.

Omega helped Rex up.

“Thanks,” he said, rolling his shoulders. He looked around, possibly counting who was here. Only two of his men, Howzer and Nemec, had made it. There could be more left alive elsewhere in the base, but Crosshair had a feeling that sniper had been doing his job efficiently.

“We need to get moving before their reinforcements get here,” Rex said.

“Is there another way off this spire?” Hunter asked.

“There’s always another way.” Rex shoved a crate aside with his foot, revealing a rough hole in the floor. A ladder was attached to one side of a vertical tunnel that presumably led down into the rock formation this temple was built on. He and his two men climbed down first.

Hunter leaned in toward Crosshair and muttered, “Put her in the middle.” Then he went down the ladder. Crosshair nudged Omega to go next. Once she was on her way, he followed. It was up to Wrecker to wrap one arm around Batcher’s squirming, whimpering frame and climb down one-handed.

Before long, they came out on a surprisingly well-maintained landing. It was carpeted and had a window carved in one wall. There were stairs on either side of the flat space where they stood. Omega went to peer through the window. Crosshair leaned over her to look too. It revealed a long column that traveled deep into the heart of the spire. Other windows appeared at measured intervals in the walls as the stairs wound ever downward. Even his eyes couldn’t see the bottom through the dark.

“Our leech vessel’s docked about ten levels down,” Rex said.

“Doesn’t have a hyperdrive, though,” Howzer pointed out. “We won’t get far.”

“No, but we can use it to contact Echo.”

Rex led the way down the twisting stairs, jogging with his flashlight up. Crosshair counted the number of windows they passed. He noticed there were three per level. They’d gone down at least nine floors, curving around and around, when Rex said, “Our ship’s docked just down this corridor.”

Hunter suddenly stopped, his spine going rigid. Crosshair knew what that meant. He listened, but couldn’t hear anything over the clamor of their boots.

“Stop,” he said. Everyone slowed to a halt.

“What is it?” Nemec asked.

Crosshair went to the nearest window. Down below them he saw the beam of a flashlight travel across a window a few levels down. In the quiet, he could hear the thunder of many footsteps. “The reinforcements are here. They’re coming.”

Dust trickled down from above. Crosshair looked up in just enough time to see a black-armored clone operative hanging in the middle of the rock cylinder by a grappling line. His sniper rifle was attached to his back. He held up his sidearm, and Crosshair fell back just before a shot whizzed by him. It scorched a hole in the carpet by his feet. He couldn’t be sure if this was the enhanced sniper. All the operatives’ armor was identical. Maybe he was just a good shot.

With the back to the wall, Crosshair raised his rifle. “I’ll handle this.”

Rex nodded. Most of the others kept going, but Omega hesitated. She watched Crosshair with an uncertain expression. She opened her mouth as though she wanted to protest. Hunter took her hand. “He’ll be fine,” he said as he pulled her along.

Once they were out of sight, Crosshair whipped back into the window. His target was limited in the amount of evasive maneuvers he could make in his precarious position on the grappling line. It should have been an easy shot. But just as Crosshair pulled the trigger, his right hand trembled. The bolt went to the left. He took cover once more as the operative returned fire. He shook out his hand. Fine. There was more than one way to do this. He pulled an adhesive detonator attachment from his belt and snapped it onto the barrel of his rifle. In one fluid movement, he spun, took the shot through the window, and ducked again. It didn’t have to be precise. Anything close enough would do.

It only took two seconds for the charge to go off. The boom echoed around the rock walls. Crosshair peered out the window. The operative’s line had been severed in the blast, but he caught himself on a window ledge several levels down. Crosshair fired off three rapid shots as the man scrambled up through the window. Each shot missed. Crosshair groaned as the operative disappeared. Maybe he had at least slowed him down enough that they could escape. He sprinted the rest of the way down the stairs until he found the door the others must have gone through.

Wrecker was waiting for him in a narrow hall.

“We need to go,” Crosshair said as he jogged past him.

“We’re waitin’ on you.”

They were the last to climb into the little leech vessel. It wasn’t designed for seven people and a big hound. Aside from the pilot’s chair, where Rex was starting up the ship, there were three crash chairs against the sides. Hunter put Omega in one of them. Nemec sat on the floor just behind Rex and removed his helmet. Batcher, apparently not reading the tension of the situation, put her paws on his shoulders and took to licking his face.

He leaned away from her. “Get down! Off!”

“Don’t worry,” Omega said. “She only bites half of the time.”

“Great.”

Howzer and Crosshair took the other seats. The trick now would be to avoid the Empire’s forces long enough to contact and wait for Echo. Rex steered the vessel out into the open. It had been hidden in a crevice in the side of the spire. A dark sky full of stars and two moons stretched out before them. Crosshair wished the weather had been cloudy to better cover their escape.

It was less than a minute before the ship rattled and alarms blared. Crosshair heard sputtering coming from the stern. Their engines had been hit. So much for not being noticed. They tipped forward. The viewport lost sight of the sky and instead filled up with the dark trees of the jungle down below them.

“ Remora -one,” Rex yelled into the comms, “we’ve been compromised. Heading to marker 025 for an extraction. Repeat, marker 025.” Above the alarms, he shouted over his shoulder, “We’re going down! Strap in.”

Hunter pulled the restraints over Omega’s head. Crosshair and Howzer secured their own, and everyone else went for handholds. Batcher slid forward as the ship careened downward. Her claws scraped against the floor.

“Somebody get Batcher!” Omega cried. “She’s not strapped in!”

Wrecker reached out and grabbed Batcher’s ankle. He pulled her to himself as best he could while holding himself in place.

It didn’t take them long to meet the ground. They crashed through trees, rattling and jolting. Crosshair’s helmet bounced between the padded sides of the restraints. The clones all had their armor to protect them, but he kept thinking about the leather cap Omega was wearing and how it couldn’t be adequate for something like this. The ship grated across the ground until it finally came to a jarring stop. A collective groan filled the small space.

Wrecker was the first to get to the back of the vessel and force the circular door open. In complete disregard for his help, Batcher jumped on his back and vaulted outside before anyone else could. Wrecker grunted as he crawled out on his hands and knees.

Hunter released Omega’s restraints. From the way she hurried out after Batcher, Crosshair guessed she was okay. Everyone else slowly made their way out on unsteady legs. Rex gathered up the supply packs from the ship. He handed one to each of them, including Omega.

The ship was in one piece, but parts of it were sparking and a few spots were even on fire. Smoke trailed from the rear thruster. It wasn’t going to be flying anywhere soon. They all took a moment to catch their breath.

Omega rubbed her hands down Batcher’s back and examined her paws as though checking for injuries. Crosshair came to stand next to her. He aimed his rifle into the trees. He didn’t see or hear anything threatening near to them, but he wanted to appear busy. He wasn’t sure if Omega was talking to him yet. Maybe she would if he made it seem nonchalant.

“You…good?”

“Uh-huh.”

Okay, progress. He would take two words over nothing. As she kept her attention on her pet, he continued, “Got your crossbow?”

“Yep.”

“Sure you can carry those supplies?”

At this point she turned around and frowned up at him. “Yes.”

Maybe he was pushing it, but he didn’t want to stop. Not only had she been put far too close to the clone operative that was probably here to abduct her, but now she’d been through a crash landing too. Maybe the fact that she wasn’t fazed was a testament to the situations Hunter subjected her to in the past, but that didn’t mean Crosshair had to like it. “Stay close,” he said. “It’s easy to get lost in this terrain.”

She wrinkled her nose. “You’re as bad as Hunter.”

“Oh, I’m much worse.” If she hadn’t realized that yet, she soon would. He noticed she was holding her crossbow with her left hand. “Keep your weapon in your right hand. That way you’ll be ready to fire without having to readjust.”

Omega rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Yes, Dad.”

The world stopped. A tingle ran straight up Crosshair’s spine and lit his chest on fire.

Omega’s eyes went wide as though just realizing what she’d said. She switched her crossbow to her right hand, looking down to fiddle with it needlessly. When she did, her cap slipped back half an inch, revealing the beginning of a discolored spot near her temple. A bruise.

“You hit your head,” he said.

Hunter’s head snapped toward them. “What?”

Omega pulled her cap back down. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine,” Crosshair said. “Give me your pack.”

She stepped back as Hunter came over to join them. “No, I can carry it.”

Hunter tried to reach out to her. “Omega, if you’re hurt—”

“I said I’m fine!”

She walked away, clicking her tongue for Batcher to follow her. Hunter and Crosshair shared a look through their helmets. Had Hunter been living with this kind of paternal anxiety for two years? Maybe he deserved more credit than Crosshair was giving him.

“Echo should meet us at the extraction point,” Rex said. “We’ll have to continue on foot.”

“How far?” Hunter asked.

“Five clicks north.”

Hunter looked up. A moment later, Crosshair heard it too. The rumble of ship engines. “We’ve got attack shuttles inbound,” Hunter said.

“This way.” Rex took off. True to their training, the clones shook off their aches and pains and continued with the mission. They ran between trees, through underbrush, and over roots, all with only moonlight to illuminate their path. Crosshair kept one eye on their surroundings and one on Omega. She kept up with them. If she was in any pain, she had shaken it off too.

A clone’s daughter.

They ran until the two ships peeled away in different directions. They must be concentrating on the crash site. Once it seemed clear the group had lost their pursuers, they slowed to a walk. Nemec was still limping.

They had covered at least a mile of ground when Howzer came up beside Crosshair.

“What?” Crosshair said, in no mood for further accusations.

“I’ve seen how you are with the kid,” he said unexpectedly.

Crosshair could feel his defenses rising. “Your point?”

Howzer paused. “Well…you’re different than you were on Ryloth. So, what changed?”

His tone was not like it had been up until this point. It was cautious, but not hostile. Crosshair had no intention of telling him about everything that had changed. Howzer probably didn’t know who Omega really was, and he didn’t need to. He didn’t need the details about Barton IV or Tantiss either. But Crosshair could share the basic concept if it would get this captain off his back. “Loyalty meant something to me. But with the Empire, it didn’t go both ways. I realized how disposable I was.”

Howzer hummed. “You’re not the only one.”

That was evidently enough for him because he fell back and offered Nemec a hand.

The hike was long. It never would have bothered Crosshair in the past; his squad used to thrive on feats of fitness and endurance. But he was still recovering from Tantiss. He’d moved more in the last few days than he probably should have. His leg muscles burned. His arms shook from carrying his rifle, and it had nothing to do with his hand. To top it off, he had hardly slept on the way to Teth, too nervous about the talk with Omega. He shoved his exhaustion aside, though. They weren’t in the clear yet. He’d stretched himself thinner than this plenty of times before.

Batcher traveled at the front of the line, sniffing the ground and periodically raising her head to small the air. The forest eventually came to a stop at a rock field. The rushing sound of running water filled the air, signifying that a river was nearby. Batcher stood still. She barked.

“I hear it too,” Hunter said.

“What?” Howzer asked. “The river?”

“Not the river.”

Just then, a shuttle roared just over their heads. How the Empire had found them, Crosshair wasn’t sure. The clones ducked between the boulders all around them. The ship hovered just over the rocky area. Its aft doors opened and clone troopers rappelled down on multiple lines.

“The extraction point is across the river,” Rex said quietly over their comms. “We have to knock through their line.”

“We’ve got these,” Omega whispered. She pulled two smoke bombs from her pack and handed them to Hunter. He in turn passed them to Wrecker, who could throw them the farthest. He chucked them out onto the field and at once they hissed and belted smoke into the air.

The soldiers crouched, waiting for Rex’s signal to move forward, when Hunter said, “Wait. We’ve got company.”

A second line of troopers appeared out of the forest at their backs, boxing them in. Fantastic. The new troopers opened fire with stun blasts.

“Move!” Rex said.

Crosshair’s group returned fire behind them as the ran into the mist, though they didn’t bother setting any of their weapons to stun. Crosshair positioned himself in front of Omega. “Stick by my side,” he told her, walking backwards as he fired. “And stay down.”

She got off a shot with her crossbow. It hit one of the troopers in the leg, which effectively took him out. Hm. Maybe she did know how to use it after all.

They stopped firing when they reached the bulk of the smoke. Crosshair took up a position behind a boulder, guiding Omega to crouch beside him. He made carefully aimed shots, about half of which struck true, while the others used their own talents to pick off the Empire’s soldiers. Wrecker knocked heads together, Hunter appeared seemingly out of nowhere and slit throats, Howzer tripped a man and Rex shot him. Even Batcher jumped on one. The field was clear by the time the smoke began to dissipate.

The shuttle still hung above them in the air. When Crosshair saw it turning so that its front cannons faced them, he aimed for the viewport. It was pure luck that his hand didn’t shake and his shot went straight through the glass and into the pilot’s chest. The shuttle listed to the side in the air. As it spun, Crosshair aimed for its engines. It took three shots, but he hit them, and the ship went careening off to crash further away in the jungle.

Rex kept his blasters up. “Let’s go.”

“How much farther to the landing zone?” Hunter asked.

“Just ahead. We’re almost there.”

They had almost reached the bank of the river when Crosshair felt the unmistakable tingle of eyes on him. He whipped around. He couldn’t see anything through the dark and remnants of smoke. He pulled the antenna of his helmet down and activated the infrared view.

And there, in shades of orange, yellow, and green, a single figure ran toward them. Crosshair couldn’t get any words out before the shot came. A bolt struck the clone with green on his helmet, killing him instantly.

“Nemec!” Howzer cried.

He tried to lunge for his friend, but Crosshair shoved him behind a rock. “Get down!” More shots followed, striking the stone in front of them. Crosshair’s eyes rapidly sought out Omega. He didn’t breathe again until he saw her sandwiched between Hunter and a boulder.

“Omega, smoke grenade,” Hunter said.

“We’re out!”

Crosshair could see the man, no doubt the clone operative, as a bright spot through his infrared lens. No one else would be able to see him. He tapped his comm so he could be sure everyone heard him without having to speak loudly and said, “I’ll draw his fire. Get to the rendezvous.”

“I don’t like that idea,” Omega replied, also through the comms.

“Too bad.”

Crosshair stood up and took a shot. It missed, the operative rolling to the side. He kept firing, trying to track his movements.

“Crosshair!” Omega cried behind him.

Crosshair didn’t turn around. The operative shot at him. He moved to the side, away from the others, keeping up a stream of fire through his rifle.

“Crosshair!” Omega’s voice sounded farther away. Someone was pulling her back.

The shadow clone passed right through Crosshair’s scope as he came closer. Crosshair fired. He saw the infrared shape stagger, but then suddenly it was gone. He looked up. He spun a circle, looking with and without his lens. The river raged to his side. There were numerous boulders all around him that provided ample hiding spots. Crosshair crept toward the place he had last seen the operative.

Then suddenly he was upon him. His rifle was gone, perhaps lost when he fell in the spire, but he shot with a sidearm blaster. Crosshair barely dodged. The shadow lunged for him. Keeping ahold of his rifle with one hand, Crosshair caught the clone’s wrist with his other, forcing his gun to the side. It fired uselessly into the ground. Crosshair twisted the man’s wrist until he lost his grip on the blaster. It clattered against the rocks and tumbled a few feet away from them. The operative made a grab for Crosshair’s rifle instead. Crosshair was at a disadvantage in close combat. He’d trained along with his brothers, but the up-close-and-personal style of fighting had always been Hunter and Wrecker’s forte. He tightened his grip on his rifle as the shadow tried to yank it from him, the diamond-shaped eye plates of his helmet flashing in the moonlight. They struggled back and forth for a few long seconds.

Their feet slipped at the same time. Neither clone had noticed the edge of the river getting closer during their tussle. Crosshair didn’t have a chance to take a breath before he fell. His rifle slipped out of his fingers as icy water rushed over his body. The river was deep and the current strong. His head submerged. He flailed for the surface as rapids forced him forward.

By the time he came up, his helmet had been pried off. He gasped. The operative splashed in the river behind him. They were both swept downstream. Crosshair could see a point just ahead where the water fell away. He raked his arms against the current. Then he was falling. Water pounded him as he dropped in freefall down the waterfall. He curled his arms over his head.

He plunged into open water sooner than he expected. The force of the waterfall above forced him down. He squinted open his eyes to look for any hint of light. Pumping his arms and legs, he fought against the pressure in the water and clawed his way upward. His lungs burned before he at last broke the surface. The current hadn’t stopped. It pushed him ever onward. Arms trembling, Crosshair swam for a big, flat rock sticking up in the middle of the water. He almost missed it, but his left hand just managed to grab on before he swept past it. He pulled himself up, crawling on his elbows onto the rock.

Crosshair took great gulps of sweet, fresh air. His whole body shook with cold and exertion. He slowly pulled his legs up onto the rock too. He was trying to stand when he heard the splash at his back. The operative burst out of the water. He leapt onto the rock beside him with such agility and forcefulness that Crosshair no longer wondered if this was one of the enhanced clones. A vibroblade with glowing orange tips flashed in his hand. Crosshair dodged his first slash and caught the clone’s arm with the second. The blade hovered an inch from his forehead as he held the man back with all of his remaining strength.

“You had your chance to be one of us.”

It was the first time Crosshair had heard any of the enhanced shadow clones speak. His voice was modulated by his helmet and sounded un-clone-like. Almost alien. Crosshair could see his own reflection in the dark eye plates of this enhanced sniper, this man created from the same template as himself.

Crosshair kicked him in the stomach. He stumbled back just long enough for Crosshair to pull his sidearm. Both of his hands were shaking as he fired. What should have been a point blank shot grazed the operative’s shoulder armor. The clone came forward with another slash and then another. Crosshair was forced back, barely avoiding being gutted. He stepped off the rock to find the water on the other side of it only knee-deep. The shadow swung his knife down so quickly that Crosshair didn’t get another chance to fire. He brought his arms in front of him in an X shape to block the blade. The clone strained against him. He was stronger.

“You chose the wrong side,” he said.

Crosshair’s strength was about to give out. That blade was going to embed itself in his forehead. He could think of only one thing to do. He tilted suddenly to one side, throwing the man off his balance. The knife kept going into empty space. Crosshair got one more shot in with his blaster. He was going for the shadow’s hand, but hit the vibroblade instead. It bounced into the river and vanished beneath the current.

The operative recovered quickly. He slammed his helmeted head into Crosshair’s unprotected one. Crosshair grunted, staggering back in the water as flashes burst across his eyes. He could no longer feel the blaster in his hand. He tried to throw a punch. It must have looked pathetic. He was hit in the stomach with a fist as hard as durasteel. Then his feet were kicked out from under him and he was laying flat on his back against the riverbed, water racing over him.

Strong hands pushed down on his shoulders. He couldn’t lift his head above the water. A last burst of adrenaline flooded Crosshair’s veins. He tried to pry the hands away. He kicked his legs. He arched his back. The hands would not relent. A choke escaped his throat. Pain lanced through his chest when it could not expand. Darkness creeped into the edges of his vision.

Crosshair realized he was going to die.

But Omega is safe. It was his last coherent thought. He’d distracted the shadow long enough for Hunter to get her away. She would never be taken back to Tantiss.

All of a sudden, his head was above the water again. He was breathing, gasping, before he wrapped his mind around it. The operative fell limply to one the side as though shot from behind. Whether he was unconscious or dead, Crosshair didn’t know. The current lifted Crosshair off the riverbed and pushed him downstream again. He needed to focus. He needed to swim. His brain was floating just as much as his body. The shadow’s form rushed by him in the water.

And went over a drop. Another waterfall, bigger than the last, was fast approaching. Crosshair marshaled what remained of his faculties and pumped his arms. He tried to get his feet under him. He couldn’t find the bottom anymore. There was another rock sticking out of the water right where it crested. An outcrop from the shore, in fact. Crosshair didn’t even know how he grabbed it. He couldn’t feel his limbs. His feet were pulled toward the drop. He clung to the slippery stone with one hand, his arm stretching out. His other hand scraped clumsily for a hold.

A tight grip took hold of his wrist. Crosshair looked up. Howzer was there, crouched on the rock. “Come on, soldier!” he said. He closed his hands around Crosshair’s arm and pulled back. Crosshair was dragged back out of the river and onto dry ground.

Water fell off of him in rivulets. He got to his hands and knees, panting. Everything hurt and felt numb at the same time. “T-thanks,” he managed.

Big footsteps pounded out to him on the outcropping. Wrecker pulled him to his feet. He had Crosshair’s drenched helmet in one hand. Keeping a hold on his upper arm, he helped him over to the shore. Hunter waited for them there. He had Firepuncher.

“You were supposed to escape,” Crosshair croaked, taking his helmet and rifle.

“Couldn’t without you,” Hunter said.

“Omega?”

“She’s fine. Let’s go. Echo should be here any minute.”

* * * * *

Omega’s eyes were red and she frowned at Crosshair when he came plodding back from the river. There wasn’t time to ask her for an explanation because they had to cover the last short leg of the trip to the extraction marker. A shuttle of clones loyal to the Empire found them there before Echo did, but Rex recognized the Commander and was able to talk him down. In a first for the Empire in Crosshair’s experience, they let the dissenters board Echo’s ship when it arrived and fly away. Crosshair half expected to be shot down. When they broke atmosphere with no resistance, he collapsed against the wall of the ship with a sigh.

He couldn’t remember the last time he was this bone-deep exhausted. Not to mention soaked through. He rested his head back and shut his eyes. He was barely able to stay upright.

He heard a sniffle. He opened his eyes and looked down to find Omega standing in front of him. The frown hadn’t left her face. She clenched her fists at her sides. She stared up at him, and he down at her. Before he registered what was happening, she flung her arms around his waist and buried her face into his middle.

“You can’t do that!”

Crosshair faltered. How did people hug kids? What was he supposed to do with his arms? He’d only ever received hugs from his brothers (mostly Wrecker) and they were always roughly the same size. He settled on patting her back. “I’m okay.”

“I don’t want you to do that,” Omega said, her voice muffled against his armor. “I don’t want you to sacrifice yourself.”

Her shoulders shook and he realized she was crying. Panicking, he looked around for Hunter. He should have known he wouldn’t be far. What he didn’t expect was for him to just stand there a few feet away, watching them with a soft look on his face. He met Crosshair’s eyes and shrugged with a smile. Some help he was.

“A soldier does what needs to be done to protect his squad,” Crosshair said.

“But that’s not all you are. You’re more than that. You can’t just…just…” She squeezed him tighter. Crosshair was aware of the other clones aboard trying to give them space, but it wasn’t like there could be much privacy on a ship like this.

Crosshair sighed. He was so tired. Gently pushing Omega back, he knelt down. “The most important thing is keeping the Empire away from you. Whatever they want you for, it can’t be anything good. We have to do whatever it takes to stop them. That means keeping you safe. Got it?”

She rubbed her eyes angrily. “No. I don’t like that. Look how many clones died today because of me! I already lost Tech. I can’t…” Her lower lip wobbled.

Finally, Hunter stepped in. He crouched down too and put a hand on her shoulder. “Crosshair’s right, Omega. Protecting you is not only important to us, it’s vital to hampering whatever Hemlock is doing on Tantiss. What happened to Rex’s men is not your fault. The Empire was drawn there because of the operative they captured. They probably discovered you as a result. We shouldn’t have brought you there. That’s on us. We’ll try to do better.”

Omega wiped a hand under her nose. “As long as you both stay safe too.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “You can’t tell me one of you is my dad and then just go off and die. That’s not fair.”

Crosshair swallowed. Hunter nodded slowly. “I guess not. But in this squad, we protect each other too, remember? None of us are alone. We’ll watch out for one another. But you’re still our top priority. You’re not going to be able to change our minds on that.”

He said it with such a brilliant mix of affection and sternness that Crosshair marveled again at how good his brother was at this father thing. And how far he had to go to catch up.

Hunter pulled Omega’s cap off. There was a purple bruise on her temple about the size of a coin. “Why don’t we let Crosshair get some rest while I have a look at that? Go ask Echo where the med kit is. And grab a blanket for Crosshair while you’re at it. If he sits there in all that wet armor, he’s going to get sick. And I’m not buying him soup.”

Crosshair scoffed. “If I get sick, I’m sneezing on your pillow on purpose.”

Omega giggled. That one sound made everything worth it.

* * * * *

It didn’t take long for Crosshair to slump against the wall, dead to the world. Hunter and Omega had managed to bully him into removing most of his armor and wrapping himself up in a blanket in just his blacks. Omega’s eyes soon drooped too, and when Hunter saw her leaning against Batcher like a pillow, he found another blanket and brought it over to her.

“Goodnight, kid,” he said as he bent down and spread the blanket over her. He normally would give her a kiss and say he loved her, but he wasn’t sure if he’d been restored to that level of trust yet. Or if Omega would want him to do any of that in front of spectators.

She pulled the blanket up to her chin without looking at him. He was about to stand up and leave when suddenly she jumped up. She encircled his neck with her arms and squished herself against him. Hunter rocked back, catching himself on his heels. He wrapped his arms around her.

“I’m still mad,” she said into his shoulder. “But I love you.”

He pressed his cheek against the crown of her head. “I love you too, Omega. I hope you know that no matter how the genetics shake out, that will never change.” As he said it, he realized it was true. No matter how desperately he wanted her to be his daughter, even if she was his niece, he would love her just as fiercely.

She held him tighter. “Same for me.”

He waited until she was ready to break the hug. She curled back up against Batcher and he readjusted the blanket. He ran a quick hand through her hair, then he left her to rest. He noticed Rex watching them when he stood up. He wore that same troubled expression that hadn’t left his face all day.

Hunter came over to him. “I’m sorry about your men, Captain.”

Rex looked down. “Thanks. You know, I thought that the end of the war would mean an end to losing more of our brothers. But I was wrong.”

“Rex…you can’t win this fight. The Empire is too strong.” He’d had this same discussion with Echo months ago. Maybe now, after losing almost all the troops he’d scraped together in one fell blow, Rex would see reason.

But, just like Echo, Rex replied, “I can’t just walk away. Not now. And neither can you. Not with the Empire being after the kid.”

Hunter let his eyes drift back over to Omega. She and Batcher were huddled in a puddle of light from a bulb on the ceiling right above them. “We’ll protect her. We won’t let them take her again.”

“I heard what Omega said about her escape,” Rex said. “I think she’s vital to whatever they’re doing on Tantiss. And if you want to keep her safe, you need to find out why she’s so important to them.”

The niggling sense of dread that had been at the back of Hunter’s mind ever since he heard about Nala Se’s suspicious activity with Omega’s blood samples pushed itself forward. “But…she’s not a clone. She wasn’t designed by the Kaminoans. What use could she be to them?”

“She may not have been made in a Kaminoan lab, but she spent the first years of her life in one, right? Nala Se isn’t just an expert on cloning. She’s a geneticist. Your squad of all people should know how she likes to experiment. Maybe she did something to Omega as a young child. Maybe she altered her, messed with her DNA. There must be a reason why she’s keeping Omega’s genetic material from being examined by the Empire. She wouldn’t bother if there was nothing there to find.”

Hunter wanted to punch something at the thought of that Kaminoan taking his little baby, never telling him that she existed, and experimenting on her. He wanted to believe it wasn’t true. But…there was that section of Omega’s file that Tech could never uncover. He said it was fragmented and written in a code that he didn’t have the cipher for. Maybe Nala Se had done something to her. Something so secret that she broke up and encoded the records.

The dread grew into a yawning pit in Hunter’s stomach. He spent the entire trip home awake while the rest of his family slept.