The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

Febuwhump Day Twenty One: Unresponsive

Author's Note: I should probably put a warning for panic attacks. :)

~ Amina Gila

Omega has never liked closed spaces. Well, no one does, but after being kidnapped, and after Kamino, she's starting to find them... difficult to focus in.

The deafening explosion rings out behind them, and Omega's thrown forwards from the force of it before everything blacks out. She's not unconscious, and she doesn't think she's dead either – it's just dark. So, so dark.

She can't see anything. Omega gasps, heart pounding as she looks around, trying to see. Nothing hurts, except her hands and knees where she landed, so she can still see, there's just nothing to see, and it doesn't stop the anxiety from clawing its way into her chest.

It's so, so dark, and if there's walls, they're closing in on her. She can feel the water pouring over her, dark and ceaseless and smothering. The room is dark, and they need to move and Hunter promised her she'd never have to come back to Kamino and she doesn't want to die and the water's pouring through the ceiling fast and there's maybe a foot left to breathe in and Crosshair –

She gasps when a light turns on, blinding her vision. Omega's hand jerks up to shield her eyes as she blinks at the sudden light – it's dim and yellowish – Hunter must've turned on one of the lanterns they brought with them.

Her hands are shaking.

There are walls. Rock walls. There's no water.

Crosshair's not here.

Just like Echo's not here.

She keeps losing her brothers.

It's too dark. She can smell smoke, even if there's not a distant echoing wash of ocean waves. Even if there's no water.

It's rock.

She's sitting on rocks.

Not durasteel.

She can't breathe, anyway – air feels far, far away, coming in shaky, strangled gasps.

"So, now we are trapped," Tech's voice filters in, "And we have lost all of our ipsium."

"Well, I – I suppose that's my fault too?" Wrecker snaps back.

It feels like she's being flung into a loop of the past.

No one would stop fighting on Kamino, either.

It's too dark. Everything is too dark.

Omega digs her fingers into the rocky ground, trying to – to feel. It's not Kamino.

But her home is still gone.

The Marauder is gone.

They're – they're trapped here, and all Tech is doing is fighting with everyone.

"None of this is helping," Hunter interjects firmly, breaking up the tirade of explanation Tech was launching into about how this is somehow Wrecker's fault. "Let's start digging our way outta here."

"Fine!" Wrecker growls, shoving Tech a step back.

He did that to Crosshair on Kamino, too.

She feels trapped. Smothered. Like there's not enough air, or maybe the walls will cave in on them and they're going to die here. There's not enough air and they'll suffocate, and she remembers the dark water closed in over her, remembers thinking she'll never make it to the surface with AZI.