Bad Batch: Healer's Heart

Common Ground

Senator Singh twisted his hands nervously as he stood up to address his people. He knew the Empire would punish him if he spoke out, but he couldn't stay silent. He owed it to his people to tell them the truth.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

"How's the Mantell Mix, kid?" Wrecker asked the girl on his shoulder. The Batch was making their way back to Cid's parlor. Hunter's wound had healed and Omega was back with them, so the worry cloud over their heads and given them a break.

Omega nodded, her mouth full of the treat. "Mm-hmm." She took a few pieces and dropped them in Wrecker's mouth. "Better than ever."

"Yeah, it is." Laughed the demo man.

"So when's the next mission?" The blonde asked as she gave a handful of Mix to Althea.

Tech turned back as they walked. "With two bounty hunters after you, it's be wise to keep a low profile."

Hunter stopped, signaling that they had arrived. "Tech's right." He took Omega's arm and helped her down. "There's too much heat on us right now."

"Ha! That never stopped us before." Remarked Wrecker.

Hunter turned to him, lowering his voice. "The kid's been through enough. She needs a break." First the inhibitor chip incident, Crosshair attacking, and escaping two bounty hunters was enough to exhaust most adults. But Omega was still smiling and full of joy, almost like nothing had happened at all.

She stood by Echo, Tech, and Althea. The older girl was trying to get Echo to eat Mantell Mix. The ARC took a handful, sniffing it warily.

"She seems fine to me." Wrecker said as he looked at Omega.

Hunter knew that Omega looked fine, be she needed time to recover. After Althea had found her brother dead, she didn't talk, let alone eat, for almost a week. Even when she began to get back to normal, she still needed time. Hunter knew that they were different people, but Omega needed a break. They all did.

As they walked into the parlor, they found the familiar Trandoshan with a datapad in her clawed hand, her chin in the other.

"I've got a mission for you boys." She said as they sat down on the bar stools. "A simple extraction on Raxus."

"Raxus?" Tech asked. "That is the former center of the Separatist government. It has since become an Imperial outpost–"

"I'm no interested in a history lesson, Goggles." Cid snapped.

Althea folded her arms, a dark glare transforming her usually calm eyes into an amber storm.

"You're being hired to locate and free Senator Avi Singh from his confinement." Cid continued. "My client will meet you at the given coordinates to brief you. Details are on this–" She held a small data chip in her hand. "–Now get going."

She tossed the chip to Hunter, who caught it. He held it in his fist tightly. "Help a Separatist? Not gonna happen."

It wasn't a secret that all clones detested the Separatists, and not just because they were the enemy. The droid army had killed thousands of them. Echo had seen countless of his brothers dead. At first, it shook him. He wasn't just seeing a dead soldier, he was seeing someone who looked just like him. He saw his own face, cold and devoid of any life.

Over the course of the war, before he was captured by the Techno Union, Echo had lost so many brothers. Cutup, Droidbait, Hevy, 99, and many more. But the one that stuck with him the most was Fives. His brother, practically his twin some would say, had to watch the ARC die, had to go through all that time without him.