The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

Febuwhump Day Twenty-Eight: "No, Not Like This"

Author's Note: Well, I suppose using 'that' instead of 'this' still counts as the quote. :D So...

PS: I had to do a canon-compliant thing like this after writing out a similar scene in my Bad Batch OC, except this is. Well. Faaaaaar more toned down from what happened in there, cuz Omega isn't a fraction as explosive as Vision. Lol

~ Rivana Rita

Hunter knows his brothers understand why they can't go back for Crosshair, no matter how often he thinks about it. He thought the same was true about Omega, until she finally asks him.

They just left Ryloth and are heading back for Ord Mantell when Omega comes up to him.

There's something vulnerable in her expression, and he loathes how strongly it reminds him of when Crosshair was young. He looked so much like her when he was five. His skin tones were different, and his face was shaped a little differently, but the – the softness, maybe. The hair, too. Crosshair's used to be long.

"Did you see him?" Omega asks quietly.

Hunter swallows, trying to ignore the crushing pressure in his chest and tightness in his throat. Doesn't matter – he needs to focus on Omega. Not on – on the fact that he saw Crosshair on Ryloth, though that's the only thing he can think about.

He saw his little brother again, walked away again, and that reg wasn't too afraid to go back for his own squad. The regs never do that. The Bad Batch always have.

Until now. He left Crosshair. Again.

Wasn't his fault, but he feels dead and empty.

Hunter sighs. "Doesn't matter."

Omega inhales sharply. She looks stung. "W – how can you say that?" she sounds wounded.

"He's gone, Omega," Hunter replies. The truth is bitter. It always hurts. "There's nothing we can do right now." Maybe if – if he has a chance, he'll talk to Crosshair, but until then? They have to stay clear. That's the choice he has to make for all his brothers and the kid. He saw how Wrecker felt after Bracca, how beat-up he'd been over hurting them. Crosshair would be the same way, and he's done far worse.

He shot Wrecker.

Tried to kill them. He was going to incinerate them.

"I just want to get him back," she whispers, crossing her arms. Omega looks up at him again, a lost loneliness on her face. "Can we try to get him back?" she asks quietly.

The question freezes him. All this time, Hunter's been convincing himself why they can't do anything. He never... thought he'd have to explain why. He knows they can't, and he has to trust his own decisions because if he's constantly second-guessing and doubting himself, someone will end up dead, but sometimes...

"There's nothing we can do," Hunter tells her. He feels so – tired.

He saw Crosshair again. His figure was small and distant, but he was there, and Hunter could recognize him no matter how far apart they are.

He's certain Crosshair saw him, too. Of course, he did. He always does.

"He's already tried to kill us. We'd have to forcibly restrain him, not to mention catching him off-guard, and we'd have to have a way to get his chip out, which – he wouldn't agree to. We can't do that to him." Hunter knows about free will. He understands the importance of consent – Echo might've accepted the... changes to his body, but they weren't his choice, and he didn't want it.

In the end, they work with what they have, but Hunter is never going to do that to Crosshair.

Especially not at the risk of someone else getting killed. Yes, it hurts, but he wouldn't want it. He just can't... do that. And he won't put the rest of his squad at risk.

"And – it's not worth the risk," he repeats.

Omega sighs. She takes a step back, and he thinks she understands, but still isn't fully convinced. "Yeah," she whispers.

"We all want him back," Hunter confesses, no matter how gutting it is to put that fact into words, "But we can't just... hope that nothing goes wrong." Crosshair nearly shot Tech. He shot Wrecker. Hunter still remembers both – if he hadn't been standing right there to catch Tech when he started falling, he would've...

Yeah.

Not something he wants to put much thought into.

(He thinks about it all the time. Can never stop.)

"No," Omega agrees finally, "Not like that."

He wishes he could give Omega better. Wishes he could give Crosshair better – it feels so, so unfair to him that he can't. Crosshair was his brother, and they grew up together. Crosshair was the first of his responsibility. Hunter misses him, and that constant, gnawing ache has never faded. He knows it never could.

Omega looks tired. She misses Crosshair, too, and that's not something Hunter exactly understands. She never knew him.

A soft shuffling sound draws his attention to Wrecker, who's hovering near the doorway of the cockpit.

Omega fleetingly pats his arm before moving to the back and climbing into the gunner's mount again.

Wrecker is watching him though, looking... hurt. Lost.

Hunter pushes himself to his feet.

Wrecker doesn't say anything.

Hunter lays a hand on his shoulder, wanting to – to – something. This is Wrecker, and he's hurt too, but there's no way to make this better. Hunter knows how badly Crosshair's loss has hurt him. Wrecker is angry at him. He's hurt. Lost. Focusing on Omega is helping him, but it's not who he really needs.

Wrecker pulls him tightly into a hug, and Hunter holds him, even if with their armor and all, there's not much to feel. "Did ya see him?" Wrecker whispers finally.

He didn't want to tell Omega, because it – it didn't matter, like he told her, but this is Wrecker, and he's Crosshair's brother, too. They used to be close – they grew up together, they did everything together in the time he was here.

Before the Empire.

Before... Omega.

Hunter wishes Crosshair had the time to know her. He wishes he knew what they would've been like. Doesn't want to think that now, he might never know, but it's true.

"Yeah," he whispers, voice muffled against Wrecker's shoulder armor.

Wrecker squeezes him tighter without having to ask.

He misses Crosshair, feeling his warmth and hearing his voice, his sarcasm, no matter how exhausting it might've been sometimes. Crosshair's always been there, and he was so often the only person there when Hunter needed someone. He always was. He –

But he's not now.

The most they can do now is be here for each other throughout this.

Hunter leans into Wrecker, closing his eyes and trying to take a moment to just be, letting himself mourn the constant aching emptiness in all of their hearts.

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