Star Wars The Bad Batch: The Runaway

Chapter 26 - Calli + Jedi =?

Months went by and Callista - who now went by Scar now most of the time - was proving to be a great addition to the team.

She wanted a name to reflect who she was like the others and so asked to be called Scar on a regular basis as opposed to her real name. Now the only time Scar's birth name was used was when the Bad Batch were by themselves or when Hunter was angry with her and would use her full name like a disgruntled parent. (Callista Jaya Fett!)

Calli was proud that even with her addition to the team, the Bad Batch was still able to uphold their 100% success rate.

As much as Callista enjoyed the action, she had to admit that the breaks in between missions were what she enjoyed most. After spending five years on her own, it was nice to have other people around to talk to or just be in each other's presence in a comfortable silence. Tech and she had created numerous projects - none of which were finished though because they'd get another idea and abandon the one they were currently working on.

With Techs help, Calli had made improvements to her cybernetic arm. One of them being that the fingertips would extend at the end to become like claws which helped with climbing (and looked pretty cool in Calli's opinion. Wrecker found himself wishing he had cybernetic limbs that he could weaponize them. Becoming a weapon himself would be a dream come true.)

When she wasn't working on projects, Calli would either watch holovids with Wrecker and occasionally Hunter would join. Unless it was sports, because Calli and Wrecker could get pretty rowdy and competitive over teams and such.

Other times she and Crosshair would clean/repair their weapons together and hardly a word would be spoken between them but it would be a comfortable silence that Calli would grow to cherish. In a small ship it was hard to have some quiet time, especially with Wrecker, but his brothers and sister still loved him regardless.

Calli found herself quite content with how things were. It was just the five of them. They hardly worked with regs and much to Calli's relief they hadn't needed to fight alongside Jedi in the months she'd been with the Bad Batch.

But unfortunately, the time would come when Calli would have to put aside her differences with the lightsaber-wielding warriors in order to succeed in a mission that would send Calli on an emotional roller coaster like she'd never experienced before.

The day - or night, it was hard to tell since the Havoc Marauder was in hyperspace and they weren't in a specific galactic time zone - was like any other. They'd just finished a mission that was pretty boring in Calli and Wrecker's opinion as there weren't a lot of explosions to satisfy the two pyromaniacs. She, Tech, and Crosshair were now playing a 'friendly' game of sabacc.

Well, Tech was being nice, but Calli and Crosshair didn't hold back on snarky comments and threats when one of them was winning - and most of those were from the teen. The Bad Batchers had grown fond of her fiery and spunky personality as it added a certain energy to the group that made the men be more at ease and not always act like soldiers.

"You're going down Crossy." Calli taunted, referring to the silver haired sniper who wasn't the least bit intimidated by the girl. It was the third and final round, which meant everyone had to reveal what their cards were.

That is until Hunter stepped into the main hold, coming from the cockpit.

"Heads up lads. We got a new mission."

"Already?" Calli asked without breaking the staring contest she and Crosshair were having, neither willing to give in.

"Yeah." Something in Hunter's tone made Calli look away from Crosshair and at the Sergeant. Though he tried to hide it, it was obvious that Hunter was uneasy, which concerned Calli. What about this mission could possibly make the leader of this squadron nervous? Nothing ever made him nervous!

"Is there something else, Sarge?" Calli asked and everyone looked at him expectantly, also taking note of Hunter's uneasiness. The Sergeant began massaging the back of his neck, a habit Calli noticed he did when he was apprehensive about something.

"Hunter?" Tech prompted; his brows furrowed as he also noted observed Hunter's odd behavior. Hunter sighed.

"We're uh, we're not gonna be doing this one alone."

"Aw, you mean we gotta work with regs?" Wrecker whined. Crosshair sighed in annoyance at the thought and Tech looked annoyed as well.

"I don't see why that's such a big deal." Calli commented. While the thought of working alongside regs wasn't exactly ideal, Calli couldn't understand why Hunter would be so anxious. No, there was something else that was bothering him.

Hunter noticed her scrutinizing him and sighed again, deciding he might as well just tell them the last tiny detail about the mission and get it over with.

"It's not just regs we'll be dealing with. We're also... going to be working alongside a Jedi Knight and his Padawan."

Now all eyes were on Calli, who wore an unreadable expression as she processed this. Of course, it was inevitable that one day she'd have to be in the presence of Jedi, her irrational side hoped it wouldn't be for a long long time. Like maybe luck would be on her side and the war would end before that happened.

But despite her negative feelings towards the Jedi, Calli didn't want her squadmates to think she was incapable of putting aside her differences to do the mission. That's why instead of freaking out, Calli only nodded to Hunter.

"Ok." She said calmly before looking back at her cards. The other four shared perplexed looks at this.

"Ok? That's it?" Hunter questioned, not believing that Calli could be so calm. Calli glanced at him while raising a brow.

"Is there something else I should be saying?" She asked.

"Uh yeah, you hate Jedi!" Wrecker said, and Tech facepalmed at his brother's bluntness. (wow Wrecker). Calli shrugged.

"So? Just because I'm not particularly fond of them, that doesn't mean I can't work with them." She reasoned, "I mean, I wasn't crazy about you guys when we first met but we still worked OK together, right?"

"So... you're OK with this mission?" Hunter asked slowly, still sounding a bit unsure. Calli gave him the best "everything is going to be fine" smile she could muster.

"Yes. As long as they don't stand in the way of completing the mission, then we should have zero problems." Hunter narrowed his eyes at Calli, wondering if she was being truthful or not, but the latter didn't shy away from his intense gaze. After a good thirty seconds of staring, Hunter seemed to accept his squad mate's answer.

"Alright." He said before going back into the cockpit. Hunter hoped that this mission would go by quickly and smoothly, for Calli's sake.

Just as he sat down in his seat, he heard the girl shout "Son of a mudscuffer!". Hunter smiled to himself. Looks like someone didn't win the sabacc game.

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I know this is a short chapter! It's the beginning of an arc that I'm not sure how long it will be yet. I'm still figuring out a few details but wanted to get the ball rolling on the arc.
Spoiler alert: Calli is going to be getting a love interest in this arc. 😏 I love romance and want to add it to my story.
Anyway, hope you liked this short chapter!
~B.C.