Healer's Hands

The Loss

"We're coming up on Coruscant." Tech dropped the ship out of hyperspace, revealing the city of a planet.

Hunter nodded. "The Commander wants us to deliver the intel personally."

Wrecker rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like "regs". Hunter shook his head. He didn't mind working with the regs, but it was probably because he wasn't all that different from them. As a cadet, Hunter was often mistaken for one if he wasn't with the rest of the Bad Batch. He hated it so much. It's one of the reasons he grew out his hair, he wanted to be different from the regs, just like his brothers.

Hunter figured he should tell Althea they were about to land. She had never seen Coruscant before, and maybe it would cheer her up. It had been a week since Ackron and she still wouldn't speak. She hadn't eaten or even cried since, just taken off her armor. She just sat there in the crash seats staring at the floor. Tech called it disconnected grief, but Hunter just wanted to get her to eat something.

He took a ration bar and walked over to her. "Hey, kid. You hungry?"

Althea stared at the floor, either ignoring him or couldn't hear him. Hunter sat next to her. "Listen, Althea, me and the boys are going to the base on Coruscant to drop off the intel. You can stay if you want, but I want you to eat something."

Still no response. Hunter sighed before slipping the ration bar into her hand. He closed it gently and stood up, giving her shoulder a light squeeze. Crosshair stood in the doorway to the cockpit. He seemed worried for Althea, but made no attempts to talk to her.

The ramp opened, signaling it was time to leave. Hunter took one last look at Althea, silently hoping she would eat while they were gone.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

Numb. That's all Althea felt. She didn't hear the Bad Batch leave, and she didn't care. Her family was gone. She had failed to save her brother. She clenched her fists and realized she was holding something.

A ration bar. She frowned at it. One of the squad must have given it to her. Waste. She thought. They were wasting their limited food supply on her as she just sat their. They were wasting their food on her anyways.

Althea stared at her armor against the wall. From the way Hunter talked about it, it was no easy task to get it for her. She was an inconvenience to them, a waste of space.

She threw the ration bar against the wall. It cluttered to the floor. Althea didn't belong here. Or anywhere for that matter. Without a second thought, she stood from her seat and walked down the ramp.

All around her were ships, clones, and weapons. Althea just wanted to disappear. She started walking toward a crowd, hoping to disappear into it.

She walked with the crowd for a long time, not even knowing where they were going, but wanted to get away. Before she knew it she was alone, and the bright top of Coruscant had disappeared into a dank underworld.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

Hunter led the squad back to the ship. Dropping the Intel off was a quick task, but it seemed Wrecker detested the fact he couldn't blow anything up.

"Why does Cody get to decide that?" He grumbled.

"Because he is the Commander of the 212th legion, therefore outranking all of is." Tech explained.

Wrecker grumbled some more, but Hunter just tuned it out. He wanted to see how Althea was doing. Hopefully she ate the ration bar.

They approached the ship and entered. But Althea was nowhere in sight. Hunter took off his helmet and looked around. "Where is she?"