The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

If Your Wings Are Broken - Part 1

Author's Note: This is for the square "Injuries/Sickness" on the Bad Batch Bingo. :D

~ Amina Gila

On Bracca, Crosshair corners Hunter and Omega before they can get aboard the Marauder and retrieve the others. Reasoning doesn't work, not with the chip in and Hunter already injured. After shooting Hunter and leaving him to die, Crosshair takes Omega to Kamino, to lure the rest of the Batch into a trap.

He knew, from when they left the hangar on Kamino, that they'd run into Crosshair again. He's been trying to prepare himself for it, too, but nothing could truly prepare him for encountering their youngest brother again. Not like this. Ever since, he's been trying to remind himself of what matters most – of how he needs to put his squad ahead of everything else, that he needs to protect the ones left.

They have no way of getting Crosshair back, even if Omega assured him that they would.

And Hunter wants to believe that, but he needs to be realistic. It's not possible, not as long as Crosshair is fighting against them. Not with Crosshair trying to kill them every time he sees them, not when he was about to kill them all.

It's too risky to even think of trying.

There are none of them he hasn't nearly killed now – they were all there in the ion engine chamber. If Tech hadn't thought as fast as he did, and they didn't have the explosives they used to blow the cylinder away from the rest to drop into the valley below, they would've died. They couldn't fly out. Not with Crosshair right there to pick them off.

"Hunter, we landed on the port side," Echo reports as Hunter disentangles himself and his wings from the crashing debris. He pulls Omega out next, though they're both unharmed. Considering how close a call that was, he counts them all lucky.

"We're by the engine," Hunter responds, looking up. He doesn't see Crosshair right now, not from here, but that means nothing. "Is everyone alright?"

"Tech hurt his wing," Echo tells him, "But it's not broken."

"I can still fly," Tech interjects immediately.

And make themselves a visible, moving target for Crosshair? No. "Negative," Hunter interrupts. It's not like Echo can fly long, or that Wrecker can without panicking, anyway. "Go on foot. I'll get to the Marauder to pick you up."

Somehow though, Hunter doesn't think this is over, or that it'll be nearly this easy. Omega looks up at him, worried uncertainty in her eyes, and he squeezes her shoulder in what he hopes is reassurance – something he doesn't feel himself.

With just him and Omega, he can only hope Crosshair will be less likely to notice them. This entire situation is hard, because Crosshair is the one they always trusted to protect them from afar. Now, Hunter needs to be on guard for him. Crosshair used to fly with them, with him, and that was something they would do. They used to fly together all the time, because it was fun, especially before Echo joined. Now, Hunter has to be on guard for him, watching the skies for him. For their brother, who didn't hesitate to shoot Wrecker, to ignite the engine with all of them inside. He told the troops – are they his squad? That hurts more than it should – to start by killing Omega, the kid. Their kid.

"Are you ready?" Hunter asks, and Omega nods, stretching her gold wings that make her look far more adorable than it has any right to.

They take the trip back half in flight to make it faster, half on foot to keep cover. Though with Crosshair overhead, it won't much matter. Nerves are clawing at him from the sheer terror of the knowledge that Crosshair could attack them from literally any angle. Hunter, at least, has a minor amount of protection with his armor and all, but Omega doesn't. And he cannot let anything happen to her.