The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

Family Ties

Omega's time on Kamino was rougher than she's ever let on to her rothers about. It was never something she planned on telling her brothers, until all truth unexpectedly comes to light.

WARNING: Mentions of child abuse, human experimentation, extensive whump, and Kamino sucks

Omega's never talked about her time on Kamino. She's never had a reason to. It wasn't important, even if she's had so many nightmares about it. It just... didn't matter. She thinks about it all the time, but she can still be useful, and it works.

Except... accidents happen, too, and her chest is burning, throbbing from an explosion that sent something flying into her. There's a little blood splotch on her tunic where she was hit, but it hurts a lot worse than that. At least she certainly thinks it does with how hard it suddenly feels to breathe.

It's not like Omega's never been hurt before. She knows pain, and if she can't patch up whatever injuries she has, she'll have AZI patch it up for her. She thought she could do the same now – it's not the first time she's been hurt since missions started. She's always treated her own injuries here, except once after Pantora, when Hunter put bacta on the rope burns she got.

But either way, she thought she could treat the wounds herself, with a bacta injection or whatever, but when she comes back to the Marauder, leaning on Echo an embarrassing amount for support, she sees an already existing flurry of activity.

"W – what are you doing?" she asks, curious, and a bit alarmed. Seeing medical equipment always... well, she can't help reacting.

Hunter crouches in front of her, pulling his helmet off. He looks worried. "Tech scanned your chest," he replies, "Remember?" She nods – she does. "The damage is, uh... pretty severe. Tech'll have to do surgery."

"Surgery?" she echoes, voice a squeak. They'll... know. They can't know. No one does. They can't see and think of her as weak or – or broken or whatever she is. They can't know.

Hunter pats her shoulder. "You're gonna be okay, kid. I promise. You'll see. Tech will fix you up as good as new."

Breathing is hard. He might be right – there's a high chance she was hurt and will need something to fix it, but –

But.

She can't let them.

"Hunter is correct," Tech replies firmly. The slight sharpness in his voice, she's learned, means he's on edge. "Your left lung is collapsing, and you require a thoracotomy STAT to rectify the damage the explosion caused."

Omega eyes the datapad in his hands, mind whirling.

"Hey, don't scare the kid," Wrecker scolds, nudging their brother.

"He exaggerates. You're fine," Crosshair promises, though she thinks he's gnawing harder than usual on his toothpick.

Echo calls Tech away, trying to set up some sort of machine that he insists is medical equipment, though it looks more like a discombobulated bomb to Omega than any sort of machine. Definitely Tech built. She would ask about it if she were more... wary.

"You're gonna be fine," Crosshair tells her, "Even if Tech has to chop you open, we'll sedate you." Hunter throws their youngest brother a disapproving look.

Omega's body jerks. She doesn't mean to flinch, but she can't help it. Sedative? She – she thought she could at least hide, but she can't do that, then – then –

"Hey!" Wrecker protests, "Crosshair, don't be mean."

It's too late. She can't. She – she can't let them see. Omega backs away, heart racing, adrenaline coursing in her veins, muting the still present pain.