To Heal Poignancy ■ TECH - The Bad Batch ■

A Run In

"Of course," Adla felt herself become flustered from Tech's compliment. She refrained from the strong urge she felt to turn around to squeal. She did, however, turn and cough into her elbow. She met his eyes and smiled warmly at him. Her voice was scratchy as she said, "It was for a good cause. I'm glad I got to put it to use."

Tech furrowed his eyebrows. "How are you? Is your throat still bothering you? Are you giving it adequate rest? From what I can see, the bruises have lightened considerably."

Hunter cut off their conversation to ask Tech a question.

She was done. She did what she wanted to do. She should've left. But she heard the Batch talk about the weapons that remained on the ship and how they could use them to pay off the debt they had with someone. Although she was very skeptical about potentially giving weapons to future enemies, what's the harm in helping out the clones a little more? She found it to be really cute when she saw Wrecker hug and kiss one of the proton torpedoes lovingly.

She watched Omega walk away as Tech called her to the bridge. A part of her wanted to follow Omega to see what Tech was up to. Instead, she helped Hunter, Echo, and Wrecker load the weapons.

Wrecker approached her when she stood off to the side by herself. "Uh, Senator?" Wrecker wouldn't look at her as he rubbed the back of his neck and head.

Adla smiled warmly at him. "Adla is fine, Wrecker. What can I do for you?"

"I, uh, I just wanted to say I was sorry. About yesterday. I didn't want to hurt you."

The sad look on Wrecker's face as he still refused to meet Adla's eyes had her heart clenching.

Slowly and gently, Adla raised her hand to place it on the big clone's arm. "It wasn't your fault," she said softly before she had to turn and cough into her elbow again. "I know it wasn't. We're okay." She ended with another smile, a brighter and bubblier one.

Wrecker finally met her eyes and gave her his own bright smile. He brought her into a quick hug that had her feet momentarily off the ground before he placed her down again.

"Here, let me carry that for you!" He took the explosive from her hand and brought it over to the cart.

Well, there was harm in helping out a little more, apparently.

In the fact that the Empire showed up.

Hunter's communication device beeped. "Hunter, we've got company," Tech's voice rang out.

Hunter glanced at everyone. "More scrappers?" He asked into his comm.

"No. The Empire."

Adla felt the color drain from her face.

"The Empire's after you?" she worriedly asked Wrecker and Echo as she placed her helmet over her head. Why would the Empire be after a group of rogue clones?

Hunter left the room to confirm what Omega and Tech had a visual on. Echo, Wrecker, and Adla finished loading the weapons onto the cart. The three then began to move.

"How many troopers are we talking?" Echo asked as he pushed the cart of explosives once the team reconvened with each other.

"Three attack shuttles' worth," was Tech's response.

Adla felt her stomach knot. She ran her tongue over her teeth as she tensed. There were quite a lot of enemies and only a few of them.

"Crosshair is with them," Tech confirmed to his two other brothers.

Adla froze. Crosshair?

After much persuasion, perhaps a bit more so of pleading, the only question Crosshair ever answered of Adla's was the name of the squad he worked with during the war. She then, of course, read about this squad. The files had failed to provide any photos and given names, though.