aftermath: life debt | the bad batch

xxxvii. imperials

╭ ─┉───── • ─────┉─ ╮

xxxvii.

imperials

╰ ─┉───── • ─────┉─ ╯

disclaimer: i have yet to see bad batch season 3. like any of it. you'll see why i had to put this disclaimer later in the chapter

tw: alcoholism, mentions of suicide and self harm

•••

Omega looked out the window of the gunner's mount, watching the mosaic of glistening stars of space, multiplying through the glare of the window. She rested her head on her knees that we brought close to her chest, enjoying the short calm, peaceful moment of her life.

Except it wasn't calm or peaceful whatsoever.

This long winded mission was ruining the lives of every member of the team. Slowly, torturing them, tearing them apart, from within themselves and from each other.

She sat cross-legged, Lula next to her, her head pressed against the window. She picked up Lula, and doing so, noticed the bandages around her wrist once more, knowing they continued all the way to her elbow underneath her sleeve. She tried to ignore them, but she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried to repress the memory of what happened that day, or night, she couldn't remember because they were in hyperspace, she couldn't succeed. That memory was a part of her now, it lived inside her, taking up space inside the forefront of her mind.

Everything about this mission seemed like it was for nothing. They lost a team member, a brother, and for what? Some plans for an imperial building? Wrecker's life was worth more than imperial plans. She didn't even know how he died.

These thoughts came racing to her mind, memories from the last two months, everything that could've been prevented if they hadn't gotten involved with the pykes. Chronologically, she recounted different memories, when she realized she had never apologized to Hunter from shutting him out of her life the day she got the bandages.

She took her head off the window, and set Lula down on the floor of the gunner's mount. She opened the curtain to the gunner's mount, and climbed down the ladder, walking towards the cockpit where Hunter was.

"Hunter?" Omega said.

Hunter swiveled around in his chair, coming face to face with Omega.

"Yeah?" he said, rubbing his eyes as though he'd just woken up.

Omega sat in the chair next to him, and he turned to face her. "Hunter, I- I'm sorry. For everything. I'm sorry. I'm the reason you guys are in this mess."

"Omega-"

"And for that day that you know, I did this to myself," she said, pointing to the bandages on her arm, "I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me. I don't want to die."

"Omega, it's not your fault," he reassured her.

She threw her arms around neck, hugging him. He could feel the roughness of her bandages on her arms against the skin of his neck when she hugged him, a small reminder of how it was his fault, and even this couldn't make the feeling of guilt any better.

"It wasn't your fault," Omega tried to reassure him, pulling away from the hug.

"I know," Hunter lied. He knew there was something deeper than what she was saying just to reassure him. Just then, the ship came to a halt, the emergency alarms started blaring in their ears.