Hunter was woken by the constant slapping on his face. He groggily opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by the Batch, scarred and burned, Rex, Cody and Ahsoka.
"Why didn't you leave?" he croaked.
"We did, but you seemed to forget you had one life instead of nine!" Rex scolded him. "We came back for you. We better move now."
Hunter did a head count. Three? No, that can't be right.
One, Crosshair.
Two, Omega.
Three, Echo.
Four, Wreck-
Oh hell no.
"Where's Wrecker?"
Nobody replied. Everybody either gazed at him or hung their heads down.
"Where is Wrecker?" He repeated, not letting his calm break apart by the raging storm inside him, threatening to let loose. "Why isn't anybody answering me?" he demanded, angrily.
"Hunter, I don't know how to tell you this, but Wrecker didn't make it out of the building." Echo said, eyes shut tight, while holding a silently sobbing Omega against his torso.
"What?" his mind went horribly blank.
Crosshair, all this time silent, bent down and first held his hand. Then he hesitated, after which he slowly pulled Hunter into a soft hug. And that's when Hunter realized, Crosshair was crying too.
At that time, he needed to be strong for his brothers.
He hugged him back, holding onto the bother they'd been fighting for, the brother they'd sorely missed, the brother both Tech and Wrecker wanted to have back. He was afraid it will all be a dream, that he'd found Crosshair, alive, ready to hug him.
"Come on," Rex said, in a strained voice. "The Marauder's there. We should leave, now."
"Where are the other soldiers?"
"They have already gone. We would have gone too, but stayed back on Ahsoka's orders." Cody replied.
"Hera and Kanan are also with me, and so is Gregor. I sent Barriss back to overlook the passengers' safety as they go back to base and Pabu." Ahsoka updated.
"OK." He stood up, and slowly, the broken group began walking back.
The ships were in their sights when suddenly, a strange, hollow breathing sounded.
Like a man breathing through an oxygen mask. Like a robot, or a man in a mechanical suit.
Because it was exactly what was standing behind them.
Everyone stopped dead in their tracks, but Omega's face went white as death. "He wasn't supposed to have returned until two days later," she whispered, hugging against Hunter. He felt pity for his little girl, and pulled her closer, one hand going to his blades.
"Ahsoka Tano," he said, in a booming voice. "Apprentice to Anakin Skywalker. I have been expecting to meet you."
"Can't say the same for you," she called back, in a harsh tone, already with her lightsabres out in a fighting stance.
"It seems this girl was a traitor after all," Darth Vader said. "Too bad I called my Inquisitors."
A group of four people clad in black appeared, twirling red lightsabres.
"You should have brought a larger battalion," Rex said. "These dummies aren't scaring us."
"Then you'll die braver than most."
