The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

Sightless

"Tech!" I yell again, silently begging there be an answer.

I don't hear anything.

Everything's quiet for a millisecond before a laser shot tears through the end of the hallway in front of me, and I yelp, throwing my arm up to shield my eyes from the brilliance. The Empire's firing on Kamino. On our home. With Star Destroyers. As if mind controlling us wasn't enough, they're going to turn our home into smoke and ash so no one will ever remember us.

Tech's still out there. If he's even still alive, he's not nearby.

Assuming he can even hear me.

I know there's no time to cry. Doesn't stop the tears from coming. Doesn't stop the panic clawing at my chest, the icy emptiness burning me to the core. There's no way back. There's – but I can't leave him. I can't.

"Viz!" Omega's tiny hand grabs my own, yanking my arm. "Vision! We have to go!"

I look down at her. Her eyes are wide, panicked but determined, and as always, she has the fierce knowing to her that I – I don't have and never could. I'm not self-assured like she is. Might like to pretend I am, but I'm not. Not like Tech.

And I have a choice – one between him and Omega – the only sister I have – and the rest of my brothers. I know it'll destroy me forever.

I know what choice I'll make, no matter how many times over it'll gut me, because I know they'll never leave without me like I told them to.

Another laser bolt burns its way through the floor, this one closer to us, and Omega shrieks.

Instincts kick in, and I run.

I feel numb when we scramble back into the tunnel.

Hunter stumbles, nearly falling when the ground shakes again, and I grab his arm, yanking him back inside the pod as it closes over us. I'm not going to lose another brother. Omega types something into the panel, and I see water rushing past us through a haze. I don't let go of Hunter's arm.

A quiet, hyperventilated sniffle lets me know Omega's crying. Don't really think she's the only one.

The pod carries us far, far away from the destruction, from our home and the nightmare Kamino always has been and what it always was, and... far from Tech.

I think something's wrong with the tunnel. Don't know, and it doesn't matter right now. Just – we have to get up, though I'm terrified something's going to fall on us or the tunnel somewhere on the way.

It doesn't.

It spits us out the other end and onto the landing platform, perfectly uninjured and thoroughly broken.

Guess that's another thank-you shout-out I have to the Empire.

They left us here for dead, even if Tech was asking us to come back to the Empire, and – and we left him for dead.

Kinda wish I was.

I stumble to the edge of the platform, gripping the railing and staring as the final laser bolts strike Kamino until every one of the structures is fully submerged underwater. The rain washes over my face, sticking through my hair and clothes. I don't have the armor luxury like my brothers yet. Wasn't with them long enough to get it.

There's a thump I know is Crosshair's helmet hitting the floor. I See it when he sinks into Wrecker's side, his light-grayness dulling with grief.

Omega's crying. I think they both are. Hunter's hand is on her shoulder, and he's kneeling next to her even if he's not saying anything.

And me? I'm the only one standing out here alone like I don't belong, because I don't really belong anywhere, and I'm the only one who cared enough to try going back for Tech and the only idiot who nearly got the rest of us killed trying to do it. I want to throw something, but the only throwable objects are my helmet or knife and I can't lose either of those. Blaster too, I suppose. Not opting for either.

I punch the railing instead, hard enough that it stings and burns, and I feel the metal cut skin. Don't much care.

"The Star Destroyers are still there," Crosshair says finally, the first to break the silence.

"We'll have to wait until they leave," Hunter replies.

"Isn't there something we can do?" I ask numbly, turning back to them.

Wrecker pulls Crosshair closer to his side again. Omega looks up at Hunter, but there's a broken defeated-ness in her eyes that tells me everything I need to know. The rest of my family have already given up, and I don't even blame them because I know – I know what it's like to them, but they're not the ones who were supposed to know like I was.

"I'm sorry," I say, shaking my head and turning away. Can't look at them. Can't think about who's missing and knowing who's fault it was. "I thought we could make things better by going in on Daro. I know it was my idea."

None of them tell me I couldn't've known or any other useless platitudes. Can't even say how grateful I am for that. They'd just make me angrier than I already am.

Omega hugs Hunter tightly, and he crouches to return it. Doesn't take his helmet off, though. It makes me wonder if he's crying, too. I don't think I'd be able to handle seeing that, though.

"I'm sorry, Omega," Hunter tells her, hands shifting to her shoulders and somehow, that hurts even more to see. He's so protective of her. I wish – I wish I had someone the same way to me. Not that he doesn't treat me the same, it's just – just different. I'm not as little. I'm a soldier. I'm not special like 'mega. I don't need it, and it's not like my brothers ever had it, either. "I know I promised you'd never have to come back to Kamino."

"That's not what matters," Omega mumbles. "I just wanted to find you all again."

Yeahhhhh, add that to the list of million and one things I screwed up on.

I stalk up the ramp. Rip my helmet off and fling it across the room with a wordless scream of half rage, half grief. My hand is bleeding. I think. It looks red. Probably bruised. Don't care. I sink onto the floor, tugging my knees up to my chest. I'll stay because they need me but that doesn't mean living isn't hard. Impossibly hard.

Crosshair is the one who follows me. I know it's him without even looking the way I always do. He sits next to me, our shoulders touching, his hand finding mine. Wrecker tramps in a minute later, unsurprisingly. He follows his twin little brother almost everywhere. Follows him like a shadow, and vice versa. How they know they're twins, I don't know, but I'm betting it has something to do with Tech, too.

Wrecker settles next to us with a disturbing level of quiet, slinging an arm over Crosshair's shoulders. We shift and squirm around a little until we're actually comfortable, and I try my most desperately not to think about how Tech died there alone with Kamino with our home and how terrifyingly lonely and painful it must've been. Drowning might be fairly fast, same as being outright shot, but both are agonizingly terrifying. Well, I wouldn't know, cuz neither've ever happened to me.

He wasn't supposed to be alone.

(I made a promise. Guess that meant... nothing.)

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