Chapter Text
“Crosshair! Crosshair!”
He thought that perhaps his drugged mind was bringing back Omega’s voice. She can’t be here. Why should she? He had warned them….
“You must be Omega”
His body went rigid. Ice seeped into his heart, as he realized that- no, no, no. It can’t be. It can’t be possible…
“What have you done to him?”
That low, fierce growl of the girl. He couldn’t- didn’t want to- believe it. The Empire got her. After all he went through, she got captured. He was tortured for nothing.
He wanted to scream his agony and helplessness. His thoughts spiralled over the whereabouts of his brothers. If the girl was here, where were they? They could be in the Marauder, going frantic over her whereabouts while she was on a ghost planet. But, what if they were with her when she was taken?
His heart seemed to stop. He didn’t want to think ahead.
The girl and Karr talked lowly for a while.
“I want to talk to Nala Se.”
“Ironic. You trust the Kaminoan, but not me.”
If Crosshair didn’t have the risk of being spotted conscious, he may have furrowed his brows. What did the scientist expect from a girl who met her for the first time? Hell, even he hadn’t learned to trust her yet.
“I don’t know you.” Good, at least she doesn’t actually know her instead of having a flashback from Kamino, he thought. Strangely, he felt jealousy over the thought that Omega might have known her.
“No?” he could hear her bend on her knees. “You might know me better than you think. We’re sisters, Omega.”
Even Omega went silent, which confirmed Crosshair’s suspicions that she hadn’t known of another female clone’s existence.
But that meant she was Crosshair’s sister too. He felt a mix of emotions; distrust, because he had no idea if what she babbled was true, anger; because that didn’t stop her from being any less ferocious, even in Hemlock’s absence, fear; that Omega may fall into her trap and give them all her secrets, and one thing that he hadn’t felt in quite a while: hope, that she may be their ticket to freedom.
“I asked, what have you done to him?” Omega snarled, finally waking from the trance of shock.
“Nothing damaging”, Karr replied, a tinge of disappointment in her voice over the lack of interest from the little clone. Like hell. She could be tortured and have nothing damaging, Crosshair thought.
“Let me talk to him. Please.”
“You can see he is unconscious. You can talk once he’s awake.”
“Can I stay by him?”
She didn’t even hesitate to ask. Poor girl. She was his target for as long as he could remember, at the end of Firepuncher rifle’s scope, always his subject of taunts and blame, and she still wants to treat him like her long, lost brother.
Karr paused. “I suppose so. However, I wish to talk to you, Omega, and I’ll be very clear. Doctor Hemlock wishes to utilize you for a grand project, on the Emperor’s orders. Comply, be a good girl, and you shall be treated nicely. Disobey, and Nala Se and CT-9904 shall pay the price.”
He could feel her go rigid. “Don’t you dare touch him! It’s not his fault!”
“We’ll be left with no choice! We’re ready to give all it takes to give quality results. I’ll leave you to ponder over your choices.”
Footsteps followed, and he assumed the figure leaning over him was Omega.
He slowly opened his eyes. Omega was looking around, so he had a chance to snoop to see that the room was deserted-save him and Omega.
“O-Omega?”
Her head snapped to him, and her eyes widened as she leaped to his side.
“Crosshair! You’re awake!”
“Why are you here?”
She did not meet his eyes. “Doctor Hemlock captured me on Ord Mantell.”
How did he know to go to Ord Mantell? Crosshair registered in the back of his mind, but then he asked cautiously, staying cold outside while fearing the answer in his heart, “Where are the others? Did the Doctor arrest them too?”
“Erm- I don’t know. I didn’t see them in the cells, but when the trooper stunned me, Hunter and Wrecker had already been arrested, and Echo was aboard the Marauder.”
Crosshair felt like she wanted to say something, but was waiting for him to prompt, “And?”
Omega bit her lip. “What, Crosshair?”
Crosshair frowned over the absence of his brother’s mention in this crucial time. From his time with him, he was definitely not one to back away from a fight, especially if their precious girl’s life was on stake, “Where was Tech?”
Omega’s eyes filled with tears as her lower lip quavered. Crosshair’s brows furrowed as his mind went into a storm. Where was Tech? Unless- no. No, no, no.
Crosshair asked the now positively shaking girl, “Omega, where was Tech?”
Omega managed to whisper, “He’s dead. Crosshair, he’s dead.”
Silence. The room seemed to echo with the silence, but all hell broke loose in his frozen form.
Tech, the genius brother. He’s no more. Crosshair will never get to see him again.
He wanted to yell, throttle Hemlock, and every other Imperial involved in his downfall and strike a blow for every ounce of pain and grief he was feeling, for the fire of rage in which he was burning, but thought the better of it as he mustered his courage to ask a sobbing Omega, “How did he die?”, his own voice threatening to crack.
And she told him the story.
“We got your transmission. Plan 88, that’s what you had said. And at first, Hunter thought it was a trap”-Crosshair’s heart clenched at his ori’vod’s lack of trust in him, but you deserved it, a small voice countered him- “but then Tech thought you actually needed help... so we set out to rescue you. He thought you had become good again, so we tracked Hemlock to Eriadu to get you back.”
No, no, no. It was all wrong. She was supposed to be rescued, not him! He let out a groan of annoyance.
“We arrived at the summit on Eriadu.” She went on, relentlessly, hiccupping all the while, “We placed the tracker on Hemlock’s ship, but a man Hunter called Gerrera blew the whole place up.”
Saw Gerrera. They should have killed him in the first place. Upon registering his memory of the freedom fighter, Crosshair’s blood boiled, and once again, he wished he had disobeyed Hunter and killed Gerrera.
“Go on,” he implored, quietly, when he saw Omega quieten after a glance at his stricken face. Evidently, he had failed for once to conceal his emotions.
“We were fleeing in the railcar, but the explosion disconnected all power, and Tech climbed up the rails to fix it. Tarkin discovered the intrusion, and sent air strike teams after us to block our way. Tech reconnected the power, but by the time he could come back, the first railcar was blasted off the hinges, but none of us were in it. Only stormtroopers. But Tech fell off the rail, and used his grappling hook to hold on. Hunter sent me and Wrecker to pull him up, but Tech told us not to, because any more weight would send both cars over. And then- and then-”
She was gasping for air. Crosshair didn’t know how to calm her with his hands bound. He could feel panic register over his thin face, but before he could think of saying something, she eventually calmed down, and with fresh tears but a steady voice, she said, “And then, Tech said he was going for Plan 99”
Plan 99. The one they named after 99, the old clone who sacrificed himself for Kamino. Crosshair squeezed his eyes shut, preventing the flooding tears to spill on his cheeks, as he tried not to visualize it, Tech’s frightened eyes, Wrecker straining, Tech saying the plan out loud, Hunter yelling to bring his vod up, Omega calling out for help…
“And then he shot the connection hinge. He fell down, Crosshair, he went down, and we couldn’t do anything. He didn’t let us save him! We lost him to Wrecker’s biggest fear…and then we crashed onto the other side from the sheer speed.
“We went back to Ord Mantell, but the Empire found us there. The broker, Cid, sold us out. She betrayed us, and Hemlock found me.”
Omega, shaking with new tears, slowly set her head on his chest, and cried her heart out, near to collapse. Crosshair didn’t have the heart to snarl at her his patent sentence, “go away”. He figured she needed a shoulder to cry on, and he let her open her heart out to a heartless man.
Crosshair wished he wasn’t bound by those shackles. He, for once, wanted to hug the clone who lost everything, like him, but it was impossible. He couldn’t let anyone soften him now. One weakness shown, and it was all over for him.
Crosshair closed his eyes as Nala Se entered and whisked the little figure away to her labs. She went, silently mopping her damp face.
Once he was sure nobody was there, he let his boundaries break.
The tears flowed on his face as he quietly sobbed over his loss.
The Empire had finally taken his vod from him. His fears had come true.
Omega was luckier, he believed. She had someone to comfort her. Here, nobody was there to wipe the tears and fix the heart of the clone who was separated from his brothers by something he wasn’t in control of.
“Oh Force, what did I do to deserve this?” he choked. While his quaking figure strained against his binds, he mulled over his question. He had done wrong. He should have fought the Order. He should have revolted, the moment his chip was out. He should have fled Kamino with them. He had no explanation for all his mistakes except one.
He feared for their lives.
If he wanted them dead, they would’ve been long ago, but something inside him always deflected his bolts, the precision of a sniper wavering in him at their sights.
He feared that every mistake he made, the Empire will make his vode pay for them. The brothers whom he loved deeply, even though he couldn’t show it, even though they didn’t seem to reciprocate the feeling.
Sure, he had done mistakes. Sure, he was near to gunning them down, but he felt he at least deserved a chance to make things right. And he felt, as the last of his tears dried, that the galaxy didn’t pity him. It snatched the last chance of redemption he had.