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As each day came and went and Echo still did not contact them, not even to confirm he was okay, a little bit more of Omega died on the inside.
He left. He just… left. It had never entered the realm of her imagination that any of her brothers could just decide one day to get up and walk out. Yes, Crosshair had taken a different path, but this wasn’t the same. Crosshair had never been a part of the squad while Omega had, despite how much she wanted him to be. And Echo’s choice was noble, which was almost worse. He decided to put his life on the line to help others, so Omega couldn’t even argue that he was doing the wrong thing. All she was left with was the selfish desire to keep him close to her and out of harm’s way. But without even a hint of warning, he stepped out of their lives and didn’t come back.
Which begged the question: if Echo could do that, who else could? What if Wrecker decided he was getting too bored running jobs for Cid and went to join Rex too? What if Tech found something that was a more logical use of his time? What if Hunter decided that fighting was better than running and that Omega should be left somewhere while he went off on his own? The image of the family she had built up in her mind was fracturing. Nothing was concrete anymore.
And it was all her fault. If it weren’t for her, the Batch would probably all be fighting the Empire with Rex. Echo had made that perfectly clear before their mission to Serenno. He had later said that rescuing her from Kamino was the right choice and he didn’t regret it, but he had not taken back the rest of it. Their lives were the way they were because they had to make accommodations for her. If she wasn’t there, Hunter wouldn’t feel the need to stay under the radar to protect her. Echo had left because protecting her was not as important as fighting the greater evil. Which was right, of course. She was holding the rest of them back. He was just the first one to step out. Who would be next?
Hunter had noticed how little she spoke in the week following Echo’s departure. He asked her more than once if she wanted to talk, but she just shook her head. She knew what he would say because he’d already said it multiple times. That Echo would be back and this was only temporary. But there was no guarantee of that, was there? He was going to do dangerous things, and he didn’t even have his squad to back him up. There was no way of knowing if they would ever see him again.
To make matters worse, no one else seemed to care. They accepted Echo’s decision without question. They didn’t even try asking him to stay. They just wished him well and turned to leave. Omega was completely alone in her distress. Is that how they would act if she left? If something happened to her? Would they just move on as if she had never been there at all?
Then, just when Omega thought she was close to breaking, the Marauder went flying off without them. Her home, where Gonky and Lula lived, where the little room that Wrecker decorated for her always greeted her after missions, was stolen just like that. Not only could brothers up and leave on a whim, but their ship could be taken away in a matter of moments. She felt like her legs were being kicked out from under her.
Now they were stranded, stuck in a collapsed mine, Echo was still not answering her attempts to hail him, and Tech and Wrecker would not stop bickering.
While the others worked to clear the rubble from the entrance to the mine, Omega swiped Tech’s datapad. Maybe if she could at least figure out where the Marauder had been taken, then not all was lost. They could still get it back.
But no matter what she tried, she could not get a signal through. “Something’s not right,” she muttered nervously. “The Marauder’s transponder isn’t relaying a signal.”
“It was probably disabled,” Tech grumbled, pausing between shoving huge chunks of rock. “By the thief who… commandeered it.” He glared pointedly at Wrecker, who growled in response.
“Well, then how are we going to track it?” she wanted to know.
“The ship’s not important right now,” Hunter said. “We need to get out of here first.”
“Quite correct,” Tech added snippily. “Besides, it is most unlikely that the Marauder will be recovered.”
Omega’s stomach dropped. That was the last thing she expected to hear from the brother who always had a plan. “What?! Don’t say that! We have to get it back!”
“We can always acquire another ship. It is merely a mode of transportation.”
He couldn’t really think that. After all the hours he had spent making modifications to that ship, he couldn’t really think so little of it, could he? “The Marauder’s our home,” she insisted, feeling desperation claw at her throat. “We already lost Echo. We can’t lose that too!”
Hunter stepped down toward her. “Omega, we didn’t lose Echo. He’s just…on a different mission.”
They didn’t understand. Why didn’t they understand? “But he’s not here. He’s not with us! We’re supposed to be a squad.” Squad was not the word she really meant. But it was the only one she had the courage to say.
“This squad existed before Echo was a part of it,” Tech said, “and it will exist after. What is your issue?”
Omega felt ice trickle down her spine. That sentence could have easily substituted one word. This squad existed before Omega, and it will exist after. She and Echo were both late additions. Hence, they were both expendable. If she were to walk out right now, Tech would not even care. If she were to die Tech may not even care. He would probably say, we can always acquire another kid, and then everyone would go about their day, just like they did with Echo.
Scowling so that tears would not escape, she tossed the datapad to Tech and turned on her heel. She stalked off into the darkness behind them. She heard Hunter start to call after her, but she cut him off with a choked, “I want to be alone.”
No footsteps followed her down the tunnel. She took her lantern with her, kicking at small rocks on the floor as she walked. Maybe she should just leave now. She could wander this mine endlessly until she either found another way out or collapsed from exhaustion. I bet no one would even come looking for me, she thought darkly. Who needed an add-on, anyway? She should just rid them of her leech-like existence and then they could actually put their skills to use like they undoubtedly wanted to.
Omega noticed a side tunnel to her left that branched off of the main one. It was quiet and dark; two things she could really use right now. She made her way in, wiping at the tears that trickled down her cheeks. When she found a good place, she sat against the wall, turned off her lantern, and hugged her knees to her chest. If this squad wasn’t the family she thought it was, then what was she even doing here? Where did she belong, if not here? She always thought her brothers loved her as much as she loved them, even if no one ever said it, but watching their passive reactions to Echo’s withdrawal had shaken her to her core. Maybe that love only went one way.
After a few minutes, she opened her eyes enough to realize that although her lantern was off, light still shone in the tunnel. Unlike the artificial yellow, however, it was an eerie blue color. She glanced down the wall. It seemed to be coming from a small hole. She got up and went to peek into it. She thought she recognized the glowing shapes just barely visible through the crack. And if she was right…
Omega unhooked the drill that still hung from her belt. It only took a few seconds of boring into the wall before a good chunk of it fell away. She stuck her head through the now much larger hole and sure enough, rich veins of ipsium glowed on every surface on the mine inside. If she could extract enough of it, they should be able to use it to blow away the rubble and get out of here. Maybe it would help her brothers remember why she was worth keeping around.
Leaving her other gear in the tunnel, she took her drill and carefully climbed down into the mine shaft. She found a narrow ledge on the other side, just big enough to stand on. It was impossible to tell how deep the shaft went beside her. She could not see the bottom through the dark. That could be a potentially deadly fall. But she could reach several veins from here without getting too close to the edge.
She started with the one in the wall directly in front of her. Recalling how she had extracted the mineral earlier that day in the other mine, she set about drilling slowly and carefully into the center of the glowing ore where yellow could be seen shining through the blue.
She was focused, but not so much that she did not hear someone approaching.
“Omega?” Tech’s voice called from the hole just above her.
She kept drilling, ignoring him. He was not who she wanted to talk to right now.
“Omega.”
“I’m busy.”
“I can see that. Are you aware that you are surrounded by enough ipsium that, if not handled correctly, could take down this entire cavern?”
She did not look up at him, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. No, Tech. I’m just drilling here for the fun of it. “Then you better not distract me,” she snapped. She switched the drill out for the needle attachment and stuck it precisely into the exposed ore. Yellow liquid filled the vial on the back of the tool as the vein went dark.
Omega unhooked the vial and held it up to Tech, who was looking at his datapad. “I thought we could use this to blow our way through the cave in,” she said.
“I came to a similar conclusion myself,” he replied, not looking up.
After he still did not take the ipsium from her proffered hand, she frowned. “Little help?”
Tech took it while looking around distractedly. “This vein appears to be much more pure than what we found in Cid’s mine. Perhaps you should extract as much ipsium as you can.”
The frown had not left her face. “You trust me to do that?” Me, the replaceable kid who’s only in the way?
Tech finally met her eyes. “I am fully aware you are capable of the task.”
She found that the answer did nothing to settle her mind. Even if he was admitting she was useful, he wasn’t saying he cared. He wasn’t saying he wouldn’t move on immediately if they lost her.
Omega stubbornly shoved her disappointment down. There was a way she could help, and for now she should focus on that. “Grab the empty vials from my satchel,” she told him.
He nodded, wordlessly disappearing beneath the hole and then popping back up to hand her another glass tube. She worked methodically, drilling at the veins around her one after the other, slowly but surely filling up each vial with the precious mineral. She must have filled four or five of them by the time Tech informed her they were down to the last one.
Omega scanned the spots around her ledge. She had already tapped all the ones she could reach easily. There was one out to the side. If she got on her knees and really stretched, maybe…
Her knee almost slipped on loose rock. That was the moment she knew she was probably pushing her luck. But they needed the ipsium. That was the whole reason they came to this planet, wasn’t it? They had enough to blow their way out of the cavern, but the others would be so impressed if she managed to bring back extra so that they could finish the mission successfully as well. So she reached again, extending her arm to its limit. The drill connected with the vein. She pushed down on its trigger.
And the entire tool spun out of her grip. Her balance gone, she pitched forward and suddenly there was nothing beneath her. She gasped as her hands latched onto a protruding node on the wall. Her feet dangled above the abyss.
“Tech!” she grunted out as her feet grappled for purchase against the wall.
“Hang on!” she heard him cry.
She strained her arms, trying to pull herself up. But the node was rounded and hardly provided a decent handhold. Her fingers kept sliding down and she struggled to readjust them, her heart beating out a staccato in her chest.
She heard a thunk as Tech dropped heavily down onto the ledge beside her. He leaned his long arm out toward her—but even he couldn’t quite reach. She risked freeing one hand from her precarious hold to try and connect with his extended one.
And then she was falling. Her remaining hand could not hold onto the smooth surface. Darkness rushed around her as she screamed. This was it; she was really going to die. She hadn’t actually wanted to! She had just long enough to regret her earlier dark thoughts, wishing she could see Hunter one more time, before the bottom of the cavern came roaring up to meet her.
But she didn’t collide with solid ground. Her whole body was overcome with a flood of cold as she plunged into water.
Water! There was no time for relief. The water was pushing her. Omega flailed. She could not tell which way was up. Without a chance to take a deep breath first, her lungs burned. By pure chance, her head broke the surface and she gasped.
She was in an underground river with a raging current. She felt completely powerless as it propelled her backward. Her head went under again, but she forced her way up after a few seconds. She kicked her arms and legs, panicking.
Through the darkness and the chaos of the rapids, she could only just see something racing toward her in the water. Tech! He pumped his arms with practiced strokes, making a beeline for her. She tried to swim to him too, but the current was against her. He reached her first and quickly hooked one arm around her torso. She threw her left arm around his neck.
Together, they used their free arms and both legs to fight the river, struggling to keep their heads above water. Omega looked for something—anything—to grab onto. A rock, a ledge, something. But the pace of the current only increased. They were completely at its mercy.
She could feel herself being dragged down and only just had time to gulp in a breath. Both she and Tech went under. They lost their grip on each other. They were being thrust into an underwater tunnel. Omega was sure, for the second time in the last five minutes, that she was about to die. She lost all sense of direction.
Then she was falling again. Falling through both water and air. She could not make sense of it until she splashed into a pool and, squinting, swam up to the surface. The water around her was far calmer than it had been. She treaded water, gasping, as Tech did the same not far away. She took in the wide cavern, the waterfall they had just gone over, and the enormous vein of glowing ipsium ore at the bottom of the clear lagoon they currently floated in that lit up the whole space in blue light.
She and Tech locked wide eyes for a moment, breathing fast and shallow, before turning to swim toward the edge of the pool. It was not far, but it felt like a mile. Omega’s muscles were pure jelly. She crawled onto the shore like a half-drowned kitten, coughing, gasping, and shivering. She flopped onto her back as he did the same beside her.
She laid there, coaxing her lungs to work properly. She never wanted to do that again. Her heart was still working overtime. She wiped wet bangs out of her face with a trembling hand.
Just then, both of their comms sounded with Hunter’s worried voice. “Tech, Omega: do you copy?”
At least she had managed to hang onto her comm through the ordeal. Omega made half a move to reach for it, but let her hand drop back to the floor when she saw Tech beat her to it out of the corner of her eye.
Sitting up slowly, he replied, “Affirmative. We took an unforeseen detour, but we are alive.”
“Where are you?”
“That…is a good question. Stand by.”
Omega sat up as well, feeling like she had just run for ten miles without stopping. She stared at the waterfall pouring innocently into the glowing pool as if it was a thing of beauty to be admired and not a death trap. She and Tech both sat in the relative calm of its white noise as they looked around the new cavern. How were they going to get out of here? She could not see any passageways, natural or otherwise, in any of the walls.
With another shiver, she chanced a look behind her. Much like it had earlier in the tunnel, a sliver of light caught her eye. This time, instead of the blue iridescence of ipsium, it shone like golden daylight. She got up on shaky legs and went to inspect the wall at their backs. Sure enough, there was a crack.
“Tech!” she called. “Look!”
He followed her, raising his datapad toward the crack. “There is a passageway just beyond this wall,” he confirmed in a hopeful tone. “We can use the ipsium you mined to access it.”
A small smile found her face at the thought of getting out of the mines soon. But…it didn’t solve their main problem of being stranded on this planet. While Tech relayed instructions to Hunter to retrieve their gear and follow them through the rapids, Omega went back and sat down at the edge of the pool. She brought her knees up as a shudder of cold shook her frame.
Tech paced back and forth as he talked, but once Hunter confirmed the plan, he came and sat next to her. “We will be out of this cavern in short order after they arrive with the mineral.”
“Except we still don’t have the Marauder or a way off this planet,” she reminded him sullenly. “And we can’t contact Echo for help.”
“We do not need help,” Tech said confidently. “We will figure out a solution, as we always do.”
All of Omega’s frustration with him came flooding back. How could he keep acting like nothing was different? Like losing a team member didn’t matter in the slightest? She frowned, pulling her legs in tighter. “Everything is changing! And you don’t even care.”
He seemed taken aback by her outburst. “I…am not sure how I should care about change. It is a fundamental part of life.”
Something snapped inside her. He was basically admitting it. No change would phase him. Not even losing a sibling. Losing her. “Echo left!” she threw at him. “Why doesn’t that bother you?!”
She rested her chin on her arms, refusing to watch his bewildered expression.
After a moment, he replied carefully, “I…am aware that you miss him. But we have to adapt and move on. That is what soldiers do.”
Soldiers. Because that’s all they were to him. All any of them would ever be. Fellow soldiers that could be easily replaced. If no one else was going to say it, then she was. What this squad meant to her. And if they didn’t feel the same way, then… Then she would tell them they didn’t have to burden themselves with her anymore. She would go somewhere else and let them be free. “We’re more than that. We’re a family…aren’t we?”
She turned vulnerable eyes to him, terrified of what he might say, but still needing to hear it. He was going to tell her she was ridiculous for thinking it, wasn’t he? He was going to explain why it wasn’t logical for clones to form family units. He would methodically lay out why none of them saw her that way and why she shouldn’t either.
Instead, for the first time since Omega had met him, Tech looked flustered. “Well, uh…” he sputtered. Then he plowed ahead, meeting her gaze. “Yes. Yes of course we are.”
Even though the unexpected response sent warmth coursing through her chest, she had to know more. Because if he really believed that, and wasn’t just saying it to appease her, then why did he keep spouting things about moving on like nothing had changed? “Then why don’t you act like it?”
For as long as she had known him, Tech always had swift answers to every question. But at this one, he shut his mouth. He looked away, eyes distant as though sorting through words in his mind. She watched him, waiting with growing anxiety. Had she caught him in a lie? Or was the question that hard to answer?
Finally, he said quietly, “Echo chose a different path. As did Crosshair. I have to respect their decision. Even though it can be difficult to understand, we must carry on. I…may process moments and thoughts…differently, but it does not mean I feel any less than you.”
Omega blinked. That was something that had never occurred to her before now. He processed things differently. Tech’s entire enhancement had to do with how his brain was structured. He was designed to understand things that most people couldn’t. He was a genius. But what if that also affected how his brain sorted through emotions? What if carrying on after a loss was his way of coping with it? What if he was having just as hard a time with Echo’s absence as she was, but showed it in an entirely different way?
“So…you do care?” she asked tentatively. “You feel sad that Echo left? And…and if I left, you would care too?”
Tech turned to her quickly. “If you left?”
She looked down at her wet shoes. “You said this squad existed before Echo and it would exist after. Well, that goes for me too. The squad existed before you met me. So if something ever happened to me, you would all just carry on like before, right? It wouldn’t matter.”
She heard him shift. “...I suppose I can see how you came to that conclusion, but I did not intend to imply such a thing. There is a great deal of difference between Echo’s willful decision to join Rex’s efforts and anything adverse befalling you. I don’t know if you have noticed, but we all actively try to avoid such a possibility.”
Omega swiped at her nose. She could feel the tears coming back. It was true. Her brothers were always protecting her. She glanced at Tech’s dripping armor. He couldn’t have fallen into the river by accident. He must have jumped after her. Without any of his gear. Not even his helmet. Without knowing what awaited him at the bottom of the cavern. He could have been jumping to his death for all he knew. But he came anyway.
Sniffling again, she leaned into his side so that her head rested against his pauldron. “Thanks for coming after me,” she whispered.
Tech did not stiffen at her touch as she expected. He actually sounded hurt when he responded, “Did you believe I wouldn’t?”
She could only shrug as warm water joined the frigid drops clinging to the skin of her face.
Tech sighed. Surprisingly, he moved his arm to rest around her shoulders. “Perhaps we all handled this change poorly. I did not realize you needed reassurance.”
“Not your fault,” she mumbled. “I didn’t say anything.” Hunter had been asking her if she wanted to talk, and still she refused to voice her fears. It wasn’t her brothers’ fault they couldn’t read her mind.
“Perhaps not. But as you clearly are having a difficult time with the concept, allow me to clarify: this squad would not be the same without you. Echo is an adult, and his decision to pursue another course for a time is not comparable to any scenario where you, a child under our care, were not among us. Do you understand?”
She nodded, feeling her lips turn up into a smile. But there was one other thing she had to know. “Will you leave?” she asked softly. “If Echo can decide to leave, will you go too someday? Or Wrecker or Hunter? What if you all choose different paths and I’m left alone? You would have all gone with Rex if it wasn’t for me.”
Omega felt Tech sit up straighter against her. “Ah. Another worry we should have anticipated. As for what we would be doing had we not retrieved you from Kamino, I believe that is up for debate. Going against the Empire involves many factors to consider, of which you are only one. As for the rest of it, I can assure you I have no plans to be anywhere else but here with all of you. While there is no way of predicting the future, I do not foresee a need for this squad to split further. I can also guarantee that abandonment is fundamentally against Hunter’s nature. You will not be left alone.”
At last, Omega felt the tension drain from her tired body. She heard what he was really saying. We love you. We’re here with you. Even if he had a hard time expressing it directly, she heard it loud and clear.
She turned her face into his chest. “Thank you, Tech.”
He did not respond, but as it turned out, he didn’t need to. Wrecker’s distressed yell filled the cavern as he and Hunter came crashing over the waterfall. Feeling lighter than she had since Echo left, Omega stood and waved to them when they popped up into the pool. She waited for them on the bank as they swam, lugging all of their teammates’ gear with them.
“See? That wasn’t so bad,” Omega chirped to Wrecker when he crawled up onto the shore, groaning and gasping. He gave her what was most likely an extremely sarcastic thumbs-up.
As Hunter caught his breath, he looked her over with a critical eye as if searching for any injuries. “You okay?”
Omega glanced at Tech as he busied himself checking on the vials of ipsium in the waterlogged satchel. “Yeah,” she said. “I’m okay.”