The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

Seeds of Revolution

Author's Note: I hope that you enjoy this fic!!! I had SO much fun while writing it! Anakin and the Batch are soooo ignored and exploring their relationship more was fun :)

~ Amina Gila

The Empire forms and the Bad Batch are sent on their first mission to deal with a band of insurgents on Naboo. The last thing they expect to find there is Anakin Skywalker himself, along with a group of Jedi younglings who survived Order 66.

Tarkin sent them to Naboo to deal with a group of insurgents. It's not the first time the Separatists have attempted to bring war to the planet, though Hunter doesn't know why that planet, in particular, is so important. Naboo isn't even in the Core, and it has no notable resources – that he knows of, at least.

"Tech, have you located the droids?" he asks, looking around. The forest is quiet, and he doesn't see anything ahead. He doesn't sense anything ahead, and that's the strangest part. All he senses is the distant electromagnetic buzz of a home, possibly in the nearby field. He doesn't feel any droids. It's strange.

"I have not," he replies. "Something is blocking my scan." He lifts his datapad a little higher, tapping on the side of it, but there's still nothing.

"Clankers always travel in packs," Hunter tells his brothers, "But I'm not sensing anything out here." He crouches, touching the ground, but even that doesn't give him any new input he hadn't already sensed. "Maybe there's something in the home up ahead."

They move further through the trees when a soft exclamation from Tech draws his attention.

"What is it?"

"I'm picking up heat signatures," he reports. "People."

"Tarkin said insurgents, not droids," Crosshair interjects, but no one's listening to him.

There's a flurry of movement as Echo moves forward, using macrobinoculars to scan the area ahead. "There are children there," he reports, sounding more than a little freaked out. "I don't see any adults, just children."

"Children?" Hunter echoes, snagging the macrobinoculars from Echo and looking through them. Sure enough, there are children there of a variety of species and ages. "Why would they be here?"

"Someone's coming," Crosshair warns, and Hunter turns, sensing the movement, too.

Of all the people who could have been here, Anakin Skywalker was probably the lowest on the list. Hunter hasn't seen the Jedi since the mission to Skako Minor when they rescued Echo.

"General?" Echo blurts out, stepping closer as the man in question slips around a tree trunk.

There's a soft click as Crosshair aims his rifle. "He's a Jedi. They're traitors."

General Skywalker holds up his hands. His expression is far too calm for someone who has a rifle pointed at his head. "I am not a traitor, not to the Republic," he tells them. "I did not turn on the Chancellor as the rest of the Jedi did, but I could not go along with his decision to have all the Jedi younglings slaughtered. I tried to talk to my men, but they did not listen. Something has been done to them. I mean you no harm. You must listen to me."

"General – of course," Echo replies, pulling off his helmet. "Tarkin sent us here. He said there were insurgents here."

Something like bitterness flashes across the Jedi's face. "Yes, he would have," he answers. "He is loyal to the Chancellor."

"As you should have been," Crosshair says darkly.

"Crosshair, stand down," orders Hunter. He doesn't understand what's gotten into Crosshair so suddenly. He doesn't know why he's so... upset. Did something happen? Why didn't he say anything? "We don't know what's happening, but this is General Skywalker. We can trust him."