The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

Febuwhump Day One: Helpless

Author's Note: This was a request by CaseyAnneWoods on Wattpad. Also, most of our Febuwhump fills are with Hunter and Omega, because... reasons. :D

~ Amina Gila

Hunter promised her she'd never have to go back to Kamino, and she believes him, but the memories take much longer to fade.

"I'm not helpless," Omega had snapped at Cid not-so-long ago while her brothers were away to Raxus. She isn't, and she knows that, but sometimes, it still feels like it.

Hunter promised her she was never going to go back to Kamino. That should've been the end of her worrying about it. She wishes she'd stopped thinking about it altogether – it's fine. She knows she'll be fine. Hunter promised.

That doesn't stop the dreams. Usually, when Omega wakes from dreams, Wrecker is sleeping next to her, and that's enough for her to relax. This time, that isn't true.

All she can think about is Bane's fingers digging into her arm as he dragged her along after him, the stillness of Taun We's body when Omega saw it – they killed her in the crossfire. She doesn't understand why the bounty hunters keep coming after her.

Why the – all of this.

Her brothers had explained it, but that – she's never been anyone important before. Or at least, it never felt like she was.

Omega tried so, so hard to get back to her brothers. She doesn't want to think about how it would feel to be ripped away from them again.

She doesn't want to die. She doesn't want to be stuck in a tube and forgotten about because she's – she's different. She's more than a failed experiment.

She doesn't want to die.

She hasn't even learned what it means to live.

Wrecker's on his rack, and Omega has to stare at his still form in the dim lighting for a moment to tell herself he isn't going to disappear. She should already know that, but it doesn't feel like it. She woke up every morning for years, knowing her brothers weren't beside her, and that was the only thing she ever wanted.

She doesn't want to be alone.

She's terrified of being alone.

Wrecker's still sleeping, and Omega tries her best to keep her hyperventilated breathing low. She doesn't want to wake her brothers. Hunter already told her, but – but she can't get the image of that room out of her head, where they left someone in a tube to die.

Most failed experiments die, but Nala Se always said they'd never make it through life, anyway.

Her brothers wouldn't forget her again if they lost her, would they?

Omega hears distant shuffling, and she wipes her eyes on her sleeve.

"Omega?" Hunter's voice asks, voice quiet and gentle.

She's not going to cry. Hunter promised she'd be fine.

"Yeah?" she whispers, sniffling anyway.

"Dreams?" he guesses, hand on the ladder wrung.

"I know you said I'm safe here," Omega confesses in a whisper, "But I still think about Kamino sometimes." She doesn't want to be alone up here. She just – wants to be close to them, beside them, to know they're not going to disappear the moment they're out of her sight.

Raxus was so scary. Omega doesn't think she ever hated being alone so much until right then. She was so afraid of the bounty hunter coming back, of something happening and being taken again, of never being able to see them again.