Nu Kyr'adyc, Shi Taab'echaaj'la

Part 10

Slowly but surely days melted into weeks and before anyone knew it it had nearly been a month since they had lost Omega. And things had changed in that time. Tech and Wrecker were slowly becoming more talkative and were reverting back into their old selves. However, Tech could no longer work on parts of the ship without becoming withdrawn for a few hours afterwards and it was apparent that he no longer found the same joy in flying. Instead he was silent as they flew from planet to planet trying, once again, to find the place they fit into the galaxy.

Wrecker was starting to go back to being as boisterous as ever but some nights, when Hunter couldn't sleep, he could hear the man sobbing quietly. He also couldn't bring himself to eat the leftover mantell mix that the group had. Instead it had to get thrown away as it was just taking up space. Wrecker also just had times where he would sit at the bottom of the ladder to the gunners mount just holding his tooka plush close to him. His loud and cheerful laugh also always has a sadder undertone to it than it had ever had.

Echo he hadn't changed much. He had become slightly grumpier and complained about the smell of the ship more than he used to. He also brought up waiting for Rex to contact them so he could leave and go with him to help with the Rebellion. Echo, however, also had a knack for checking up on everyone despite their pain. It had taken Hunter so long to realize how the man had recovered so quickly but eventually he realized that Echo had so much worse, in his eyes, tragedies that had happened and he had grown used to just living with the pain.

As for Hunter, he had become completely lost. Everything he did felt mindless and he had grown extra protective over the rest of the Bad Batch. Whenever they were on a planet and he felt something was slightly off he ordered that they left immediately. He also was the only one he allowed to go out and find a way to get money for them to continue buying food and supplies. He also stopped sleeping as much. Every time he dozed off he just relieved Omega's death in his mind so instead he did all he could to prevent himself from falling asleep. He also refused to set Omega's doll down. Instead he kept it in his belt and you could tell when he was really missing Omega because his hand would go right to it and the rest of it's small head.

After weeks had passed Hunter was starting to wonder if things would ever change when Echo, followed by Tech, walked up to Hunter. "Hunter," Echo started, "we have something that we want to share with you. It's about Omega as well as Crosshair." Hunter's hand immediately went to the doll and Wrecker, having his interest caught, walked over.

"What is it?" Wrecker asked before Hunter could.

Tech pushed his goggles up before speaking, "Hunter, you know how you said that Crosshair killed Omega?"

"Yeah. How could I forget?"

"Well," Tech continued, "I don't think that information was correct." Hunter gestured for him to elaborate, and Tech cleared his throat. "When Crosshair had his blaster trained on Omega it was aiming at her back."

Hunter scowled. "And how does that prove that Crosshair didn't kill her?"

"Because," Echo said, "Omega was shot from the front. That means that Crosshair couldn't possibly have been the one that shot Omega. It was one of the other men. Crosshair might have been the one to give in order to kill Omega but he wasn't the one who actually executed that."

"It's still Crosshair's fault though," Hunter grumbled.

"Maybe not," Tech said, readjusting his goggles, "Before Omega fell I saw him move the blaster to point at a trooper. After Omega died he killed that trooper and then the other ones so you could make your mistake. If I had to guess, Crosshair had a change of heart of sorts."

Hunter was taken aback by this. He had gone the past month hating Crosshair with every fiber of his being and now he was learning that he had tried to save Omega yet again. He seemed to have a knack for putting Omega in dangerous situations and then saving her, or at least trying. Hunter sighed before taking a breath and shaking his head. "I've got to think about this."