Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

10

A/N: Edited to fix a mistake with Astera's vambraces.

Astera:

His next communication came three days later and Wrecker's headaches had only gotten worse. When I heard the beeping on the comms, it felt like I could finally breathe again. Three days of tensely watching Wrecker every time he groaned in pain. Three days of keeping an eye on the rest of them and trying to keep myself between them and Omega, in case any of them snapped. My actions were not subtle; Hunter was starting to become even less fond of me than usual. He'd noted the familiarity between Rex and I, and I could tell he had questions, but he wasn't about to start asking and I wasn't about to answer them.

Rex's comm to the Bad Batch had come with its own private one for me. Omega was occupied watching Bolo and Ketch play dejarik; with the rest of the Bad Batch talking strategy, it would be safe enough to speak with him for a bit.

"Come to Bracca with us," Rex said as soon as his blue outline appeared on the hologram projector built into my vambrace. "I'll need backup if it all goes wrong. At the very least, someone needs to protect the kid."

My other fist clenched hard. I didn't want to go, not to support clones. There would be nowhere to run if they all turned on me. "You know it's dangerous for me too, right?"

He sighed. "I do. But I have no one else to ask. As long as they don't know who you really are, it should be fine."

He had, yet again, another unfortunate point.

"Alright," I relented unwillingly. "I'll meet you there with the rest of them."

The transmission ended, and I returned back to the main floor. They had already gathered their equipment and were heading out the door, Wrecker complaining about yet another headache.

"Hold up! I'm going with you." I caught up to them, pausing the group in their tracks.

"And why would you do that?" Echo folded his arms and stared at me distrustfully. This wasn't a mission from Cid - I had no motivation to go. Of course he would be suspicious. I had to think of a suitable excuse.

"Someone needs to protect Omega if you all activate at the same time." I'd forgotten that I wasn't supposed to be listening to their conversation, but after putting Omega behind me, they were aware I knew about the chips. There wasn't any point in pretending.

Hunter gave me a disbelieving look. "Since when do you care about us?"

"Omega is just a kid. Can't leave a kid to something like that."

It was hard for them to argue with that.

"Come on then." Hunter jerked his head reluctantly, heading out the cantina with the rest of them.

"Do you really think that they're all going to turn? Omega looked mournfully up at me. I resisted the urge to put a hand on her shoulder; I had a feeling it would not go over well with Hunter.

"I hope not, kid. But it's better to be safe than sorry."

Wrecker's groans continued even while we were on the ship, gripping his temples and his leg bouncing up and down rapidly in an attempt to regulate the pain. I tried to shift Omega as far away from Wrecker as possible, keeping myself between him and her. If he snapped, at least I had the training to deal with him. Tech had implemented her help creating a headset to detect the location of the inhibitor chip; between all of us, she was most likely to be helpful. They worked on top of their faulty battery droid, which Omega insisted on calling 'Gonky'.

"I don't like this plan!" Wrecker wailed, surging to his feet and beginning to pace in circles. I shifted my stance to face him, tensing as he brushed close to us.