The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

Febuwhump Day Eleven: Time Loop

Author's Note: Yes, yes, this is a play on the word 'time-loop' but it really fit... I felt like I was stuck in one when I watched that episode. ;-;

~ Rivana Rita

Echo's gone. He's not the first of her brothers who walked away, and Omega can't let it go. What she doesn't know is why everyone else did.

"How can you just let him go?" Omega demands finally when she manages to turn away from the closed ramp – there's nothing to see anymore. The ramp closed, cutting off her final view of Echo, just like it did for Crosshair. He said it wasn't forever, but she doesn't believe it.

Crosshair's gone forever.

She thought after finding them, she'd never have to lose them again. She thought – so why is this happening? Why does it keep happening?

"Echo was a reg before he joined us," Hunter replies, crouching in front of her, and he doesn't sound nearly as hurt as he ought to.

Omega remembers the days right after Kamino like yesterday. She felt dead inside, empty, and she can't count the number of times she cried. Hunter was quiet, sitting in his seat nearly motionless for hours. She knew he was hurting, but he was never emotional about it. He never is. About anything.

Logically, Omega knows he can't be, but right now, that just makes her angry.

"He never really moved on from their way of life."

"He's one of us!" Omega snaps back fiercely, tears burning in her eyes. "How could he just leave?"

"He's on a different mission," Hunter replies. "If he wanted to leave, we can't stop him."

The same thing happened with Crosshair. It was exactly the same – she stayed the longest, tried her hardest to get him to come, and he turned her down. She never stopped watching, looking back, while Hunter waited for her in the doorway.

It feels like she's being thrown into the past, and Omega can't help wondering desperately, wildly, if this is going to happen again.

She can't imagine Tech or Wrecker or even Hunter leaving her, but (Hunter did leave her, didn't he? Even if he came back?), but she couldn't imagine Echo doing this, either.

How can she know that she won't be trapped watching again as she loses one of her brothers? She can't handle that. Crosshair's gone, and it never stops hurting. There's still a gaping void in her heart, and she feels so empty. She doesn't know what it'll take before someone else is gone. Before – how can her brothers be so calm about this? Why are they being so calm about this? How can they just accept it?

"How can you be alright with it?" Omega demands, "How can you just let him go? How..."

"Echo has always wanted to fight the Empire," Hunter tells her, like that actually answers something, and she backs up, shaking her head.

"But – but we're supposed to be a squad! We do things together! We don't just leave!" There's a crushing pressure in her chest that she can't breathe through, building and burning and strangling and she wants to scream.

Echo's gone, Crosshair's gone, who is she going to lose next?

"You're – you're so calm about it," Omega bursts out finally – she used to think he was unhurtable, that he could do anything, but then Bracca happened, and she saw him fall, saw him nearly die, and she couldn't... but she just doesn't understand it. "How can you be fine with it?"

"I usually want the same things," Hunter replies, looking away. "Tech, Wrecker, and I – we always have. Usually, anyway. We've always put our team first. With Echo, it's always been... different. He's questioned us settling down from the start. He didn't want to. The only life he's ever known was fighting, and he... can't adapt to anything else. The regs... are different than us. They're trained to put the mission ahead of each other."

Omega had noticed there was some sort of... friction between Hunter and Echo, though it was never something she understood. She never thought it mattered. "But Echo has always put us ahead of the mission," she argues fiercely remembering vividly how hard she tried to go after the war chest until Echo told her to stop.

She can't even say what Hunter's expression is. Maybe he does look hurt. Maybe. She thinks he is, just... he hides it well. Omega doesn't understand why it's hidden at all. "Yes, he has," Hunter agrees, "But this... is something he wants to do, and it's not something we can do together."

She understands that, in theory, but it still feels wrong. They're supposed to stick together. She doesn't know how Hunter could have seen it coming, how he... could even have thought about it.

Omega hadn't thought about it until right now. It was entirely out of nowhere. It doesn't seem fair her brothers had the warning, and she didn't. She never knew Echo as long, and it feels like maybe – she doesn't know.

It reminds her of Crosshair, only this time, she's not angry.

She just feels empty.

How long is it going to be before she loses someone else?

If they can't be whatever Echo needs them to, for him to stay, then... how does she know the same isn't true for everyone else? She can't lose them, too.

Air isn't coming in right and her throat is tight and her eyes are burning.

She falls into Hunter's arms when she finally gives in and cries.

Over his shoulder, she sees Tech and Wrecker flying the Marauder out, sees the dimness of the passing levels on Coruscant through a blur. It's wrong. Wrecker never copilots. It's always supposed to be Echo and Tech who fly. Well, Hunter might sometimes, but –

Omega turns her head away, burying her face into the softness of Hunter's scarf – it makes hugging him a lot more comfortable without the hard iciness of his armor on her face – clinging to him.

His hand is warm on her back as he holds her close.

Omega wants to tell herself she's safe, that she won't have to wake up one morning to know that she's alone again and all her brothers are gone, but she can't anymore. Can't again. Hunter might protect her, but he can't stop those things.

She has no idea how she's supposed to move on, how she's supposed to deal with the knowledge that Echo's gone, and apparently, they never were whatever it was he needed and wanted. She thought they were, that they'd – she never saw this coming.

They never told her.

They never talked about it.

Echo just – he's gone, and she has no idea how she's supposed to live without him. With knowing that he's...

She's not angry at him. She's just hurt. Okay, maybe that's not true – she is angry at him, a little bit, but she understands wanting to help people. She and Hunter have fought about that many times.

"I'm sorry," Hunter says, holding her tightly.

Omega nods against his neck – she knows. Knows him enough to know that. He hates it when they're hurt. That doesn't always mean he can stop it. Not everything is something Hunter can fix, no matter what she used to think about him.

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