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“Omega,” Hunter called to her from the doorway of Shep’s house. “It’s almost time for dinner.”
Omega and Lyana had been playing with the moon-yos just outside the patio gate, giggling as they watched the moon-yos poke and tackle each other before running off.
“Alright,” she called back to Hunter. “I’ll go get Crosshair.”
“Hurry up,” Hunter said. “We don’t want the food to get cold.”
She left Lyana and hurried down the steps toward the ocean.
It had been two weeks — or maybe it was closer to three now — since their family had landed the stolen Imperial shuttle in Pabu’s colonnade. Almost three weeks since she’d fallen asleep on Hunter’s shoulder, realizing she and her family were finally free from Tantiss Base, Doctor Hemlock and the Empire.
Since then, everything had changed so quickly from day to day — almost hour to hour sometimes.
As promised, Hunter had been coordinating with Rex to track down the Vault children’s missing families. Two of them had already left, and Jax was set to leave in the morning.
Some clones were staying on Pabu for now, but a few had talked about going to other systems. Hunter had said he’d help them however he could, while he was simultaneously trying to find a new ship for his family.
The Marauder had been their home for so long, but now they just needed a vehicle. Something to help them keep in touch with Echo and Rex, and to make the occasional trip off-world for supplies. Or for fun.
Omega had talked resuming her flying lessons and exploring other parts of the planet. Flying wouldn’t be the same without Tech, but she knew she’d be able to feel him in the cockpit next to her, worried as ever.
With The Marauder gone, they also needed a place to stay on Pabu. A place to call home.
They’d found a spot in Lower Pabu that was perfect for a house, and Wrecker and the cadets were starting to get supplies together. The locals were offering their expertise as far as layout and design, and Wrecker was confident they’d have it built in a few months.
For now, Omega, Hunter, Wrecker, Crosshair and Batcher were sleeping in their stolen Imperial shuttle parked in the colonnade.
It wasn’t ideal, but they made it work, piling the cargo area full of any pillows and blankets they could borrow or buy.
Shep had offered to host them until they’d built their house, but with four people and a hound, they knew it would be too much to ask.
They did accept his offer to host them for dinner every night, though, as none of them were very good at cooking.
Yet.
Omega knew it wouldn’t be too long before Hunter was. He’d been learning from Shep and the other villagers since they first landed on Pabu a half-year ago, and now that their family was staying permanently, he was more studious than ever.
Every night after dinner, Omega returned to the shuttle in the colonnade, where she’d claimed a corner near the main door. She had a blanket and pillow borrowed from Lyana and her trusty Lula doll, reclaimed from the Archium.
She sometimes worried she wouldn’t be able to sleep, that she would dream about Tantiss. About being confined there all those months. About having to escape it again. About the cold, rainy night that Hemlock tried to steal her away for good.
But she was frequently so exhausted that sleep was no issue.
A few times she’d woken in the middle of the night, and looked across at Hunter and Wrecker sleeping on the opposite side of the cargo area. Hunter would be propped up against the wall with a pillow under his neck, while Wrecker would be splayed-out atop a pile of pillows and blankets.
Crosshair didn’t seem to sleep much.
After everything, he was adjusting both better and worse than she, Hunter and Wrecker had expected.
Those first few days after escaping Hemlock and Tantiss had been so chaotic. Hunter and Wrecker had been working on other things, but Crosshair had mostly stayed by Omega’s side, going where she went, helping those she helped.
A few times, he went to pick things up with his right hand, only to remember it was gone. Omega couldn’t read his expression when it happened. Was it frustration, relief or something else?
After a week, Crosshair must’ve realized he couldn’t follow her around forever. And, as much as she liked it, Omega also felt he should and would find his own path. They talked about it one day when she was watching him play with Batcher at their usual spot in the cove.
“I’ve thought about trying spearfishing,” he said. “It makes sense. For me.”
He held up his right arm, which even she was still adjusting to seeing without a hand.
“And … I think I could do it with one hand.”
Since then, Crosshair had been spending the better part of his days learning from the master-spearfishers on the island. As expected, he was picking it up quickly. He told her throwing the spear wasn’t the issue, but grabbing the fish afterward was difficult with only one hand.
Whatever he caught — and the number and size of the fish was increasing daily — he gave Shep first pick for their shared dinners. Then, he gave the rest to the cadets, the remaining clones and the families who were looking after the Vault children.
Crosshair usually started fishing so early in the day, he was done by midafternoon. After distributing his catches, he’d been spending that hour or so before dinner at his usual spot in the cove. Batcher had been going with him, and when Omega went to get him for dinner, she’d caught him playing fetch with Batcher a few times.
Wrecker had complained more than once about how long it took Omega to get Crosshair each evening. Couldn’t Crosshair just keep a comlink on him, Wrecker had bemoaned. Then, they could all eat sooner.
But Hunter knew why Crosshair didn’t and told Wrecker to let it go.
It was becoming a nice routine, and Omega liked to imagine that they’d be doing this every day for the foreseeable future. And that was everything.
*****
Crosshair was in the usual spot, half-sitting against a large rock with his eyes closed. The sun was low on the horizon, casting golden light across the water.
Batcher, of course, was all too happy to see Omega. The lurca hound raced forward and jumped onto her, and Omega patted her horn with an approving smile.
Omega never had to say anything to Crosshair. He’d know when she was looking at him, even from 100 paces.
But he usually waited until she was a stone’s throw away to acknowledge her.
He did the same now, opening his eyes, standing up and turning around.
“Dinnertime?”
“You know it.”
He took the toothpick out of his mouth and started walking toward her.
“I hope Shep’s taught Hunter how to prepare that karppia properly,” he said. “It’s not the best-tasting fish. Or so the other spearfishers said.”
Omega chuckled and said, “I’m sure they have it under control. Although it’s much bigger than the other one you caught yesterday. You’re getting better at it. I can tell.”
“Maybe,” he said as reached her and they both started walking back up the island.
“You’re probably catching enough that you could start selling them, if you wanted to.”
“The priority is making sure everyone who’s still here has enough to eat,” he said, referring to all the Tantiss escapees.
“True, but you could eventually.”
He nodded before asking her about everything she’d done that day. In the back of her mind, it reminded her of all those times she sat outside his cell and told him about her day.
But the thought didn’t bother her. If anything, it made her proud. After all, they were the only two people in the entire galaxy who had escaped Tantiss not once, but twice.
As they neared the Sea Wall, Omega headed in a different direction than usual.
“Let’s go this way,” she said, stepping ahead of Crosshair. “It should be faster.”
Crosshair seemed to tense up, and a strange look flashed across his face.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, c’mon. Or we’ll be late.”
Omega started going up the path. Batcher was already so far ahead, Omega figured she was almost at Shep’s house. Omega quickened her pace and, after a sigh, Crosshair wordlessly followed.
They were maybe halfway along the Wall when Omega didn’t hear Crosshair’s steps behind her anymore.
She looked back. He’d stopped and was gazing out toward the main pier with a solemn expression on his sunset-lit face.
“Crosshair? What is it?”
He glanced at her, and then lowered his head and shoulders as he stared at the stony path.
“Omega, there’s something I never told you. About that night they took you back to Tantiss.”
She stepped toward him, needing to be within arm’s reach. He finally looked up at her.
“I … missed the shot. The tracker, I never got it onto the ship. Stormtroopers found me here on the Wall, and by the time I evaded them and fired, the ship took off at the last moment.
“If I hadn’t missed, we could’ve gotten to Tantiss much sooner. And maybe—”
He paused, balling up his left hand. She felt she had to complete the thought for him:
“You wouldn’t have lost your hand?”
“No, no, that’s not what I was going to say. It’s just that, if we’d gotten to Tantiss sooner, we could’ve stopped Hemlock before he … threatened you.”
The phantoms of that night on the rainy bridge passed across his face. His eyes were now full of the same fear, the same doubt.
Unable to stand from the weight of it, he crouched down to his knees.
“Please, Crosshair,” Omega said, stepping forward. “I don’t blame you, and I don’t want you to blame yourself either. You might’ve missed the shot here, but you made it when it counted.”
She put her hand on his left shoulder. It was the same spot where she’d first tried to reach him in the Kaminoan brig. But this time, he didn’t flinch or turn away.
Omega looked into his eyes, so full of sorrow, and told him: “You saved me.”
Finally, the burden was gone. Crosshair’s whole body relaxed. His right arm was still hanging by his side, but he moved his left arm to pull her into a half-embrace.
“Thank you, Omega,” he said, his voice cracking. “I couldn’t have made it without you. You never gave up on me. You believed in me. Even after … everything.”
Omega couldn’t stop her eyes from welling with tears.
“I knew you could do it,” Omega said, hugging him as tightly as she could. “Hunter did too. You came back to Tantiss for me. If you could do that, you could do anything.”
He finally shifted his torso and wrapped his right arm around her. He hadn’t that rainy night on Tantiss, but he finally felt he could now.
Tears kept falling from Omega’s eyes as she buried her head into his shoulder.
Finally, she released him. As she took a step backward, she saw him quickly wipe his face with his left hand. She didn’t bother to do the same.
“You say I can do anything but,” he said, looking down at his stump, “I’m not so sure.”
“Don’t worry,” she told him. “I’m sure Echo can find someone to fit you with a robotic one. If you want it.”
He shrugged, and his eyes glanced between her and his missing hand.
“I … I do think I’d like a replacement one day,” he said. “It’s been hard to adjust to, but I think it’s also been … a relief, I guess. In a way. But there are so many things I can’t do now that I want to.”
“Like what?” Omega asked.
“Nothing fancy. Just little things.”
He took his left hand and gently wiped the tear stains from her face.
“I missed so much with you already,” he continued. “I don’t want to miss anything else.”
For all his efforts, she felt new tears gathering in her eyes. Crosshair gave her a slight smile in return, his eyes now shining too.
“It’s alright, Omega. We’ll figure things out. All of us, together. That’s what families do.”
She smiled back at him, recalling something similar Tech had once told her. But Crosshair’s words resonated more strongly.
A family. Not soldiers. Before, they had been both. They’d needed to be both. Now, there was no need. The fight was over.
He knew that too.
Omega noticed the sunlight on his face was more orange than gold now. Glancing out at the water, she saw the sun about to dip below the horizon.
“C’mon,” she said. “Hunter will be worried if we’re not back soon.”
Crosshair stood up, and they both started walking up the path again.
“No, he won’t. Not like he used to. I know I don’t. And I’m much worse than he is, remember?”
As they neared Shep’s house, they found a cross-armed Wrecker waiting in front of the patio gate. He opened his frowning mouth to complain. But when Wrecker saw Omega’s smile and the calm, weightless expression on Crosshair’s face, he instead told them:
“I hope you two are hungry. Shep and Hunter went a bit overboard with the karppia.”
Omega chuckled, and Wrecker opened the gate for her. Batcher was already waiting near the table, along with Lyana. In the background, Shep and Hunter were putting a few final touches on the food.
As Crosshair entered the patio, Wrecker gave him a pat on the shoulder, unseen by anyone else. Crosshair replied with a grateful nod.
The two families, now completely assembled, sat down to dinner. As the last sliver of sunlight sank below the horizon, thousands of outdoor lights all across Pabu blinked on at once.
*****
After a hearty meal and lighthearted conversation, Crosshair was the first to leave the table.
“Thank you for dinner, Shep, Hunter,” he said, nodding to each of them. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to retire now. But you all can stay. Don’t let my leaving disturb you.”
Batcher made a move to follow him out of the gate, but Crosshair softly gestured for her to stay. He stepped into the street and headed toward the colonnade.
Omega and Hunter looked at each other.
The four of them usually hiked back to the colonnade together after dinner. Then the brothers would talk or finish some last-minute work while Omega went to bed.
With Crosshair gone, the three of them stayed at Shep’s another half-hour, until it was fully night, and then headed up to the colonnade with Batcher.
“Omega,” Hunter asked, “did something happen as you and Crosshair were coming up for dinner?”
“We passed the spot on the Wall where he missed the shot, the night they took me back to Tantiss.”
Wrecker looked surprised, and Hunter was concerned, but neither said anything.
Omega told them briefly about her conversation with Crosshair, ending with, “Now that he told me, I hope he’ll stop blaming himself. I told him that I don’t.”
“And neither do we,” Hunter added.
Wrecker gave a small grunt of approval and said, “He’s the only reason we even found Tantiss. Him telling us about Rampart.”
Omega hadn’t heard exactly how they’d found Tantiss. She simply figured that, after the clone operative had taken her comlink, Crosshair had shot a secondary tracker onto the ship as planned.
Wrecker — with some help from Hunter — gave her a brief account of how they broke former Vice Admiral Rampart out of an Imperial labor camp, snuck onto an orbital station over Coruscant and latched onto a transport heading to Tantiss Base.
She remembered wondering, when she felt the laser cannons going off, why it had taken her brothers a few days to find her. But now, she realized, if they’d come sooner, she might not have met her friends in the Vault or found out about the Zillo Beast.
She wanted to think it had all worked out as it was supposed to.
But Crosshair’s right hand, Wrecker’s deep chest wound, and Hunter’s migraines after Hemlock’s torture — these weren’t small losses either. Both Hunter and Wrecker insisted they were fine now, despite her worries, but Crosshair’s stump lingered in her mind.
Omega was so lost in thought, she didn’t realize they’d reached their shuttle in the colonnade.
“Where’s Crosshair?” Wrecker asked.
The shuttle doors were open, but he wasn’t inside.
“Maybe he went down to the cove again?” Omega wondered aloud.
Hunter scanned the area and took a stance as if he was tracking Crosshair. He headed toward the large, weeping maya tree at the heart of the colonnade. Omega instinctively followed him, while Wrecker led Batcher inside the shuttle.
Hunter and Omega walked toward and then around the tree, to the side nearest the Archium. Crosshair was sitting against the bark, arms crossed and fast asleep.
“Does he normally sleep out here?” Omega whispered, leaning toward Hunter.
“I don’t know,” he replied softly. “Don’t think he’s slept much since we got back to Pabu.”
Omega and Hunter smiled at each other before Omega looked back at Crosshair. A thought popped into her head, and Hunter could tell by her expression what it was.
“Go on, Omega. It’s alright.”
He quietly headed back to the shuttle, as Omega approached the tree, stepping onto its raised bed. Even as she neared Crosshair, he didn’t seem to stir. She sat on his left side and, ever so softly, leaned her head against his shoulder. His eyes stayed shut, but his breathing seemed to stop for a half-second before resuming without issue.
Seeing Crosshair finally sleeping peacefully, Omega’s once-racing mind was quiet again. She too closed her eyes and carefully adjusted her head so she could rest more comfortably against his shoulder.
Hunter returned and gently threw a blanket over them. Omega opened one of her eyes a tad and smiled at him.
“Goodnight, you two,” he whispered.
Omega closed her eye again and tried to slow her breathing to match Crosshair’s.
Hunter beamed at the two of them, almost unable to comprehend the sight.
The brother who’d once hunted them down, who’d berated and despised Omega on Kamino, was now sleeping peacefully next to her. Even after all these weeks since Crosshair and Omega first escaped Tantiss together, Hunter still couldn’t believe how much Crosshair had changed.
But, then again, he shouldn’t be surprised.
Omega had that effect on people. Hunter knew it better than anyone.
He couldn’t think of a happier sight. His brother restored, Omega safe and happy, and all of them living on their new island home.
Or almost all of them.
As he walked toward the ship, Hunter turned back and stared at the Archium.
“Oh, Tech,” he said softly to the wind and sky. “If only you could’ve seen them together. You’d be so proud of them both.”
It didn’t take long for Omega to fall asleep. She knew no one in the galaxy could sneak up on her with Crosshair by her side.
She couldn’t be safer.
After so many missions, battles and days of imprisonment, she reveled in the thought that her family was finally, finally free.
*****
Crosshair could sense the early morning light without even opening his eyes. He heard soft breathing next to him, and his left arm was numb.
Omega.
He flicked his eyes open and saw the silhouette of the Archium beyond the dangling limbs of the weeping maya tree. He glanced to his left to see Omega’s light-colored hair against his shoulder.
He froze. He couldn’t risk waking her.
She still seemed sound asleep, and there was a blanket covering her legs and his own.
Hunter.
Crosshair shook his head and silently chuckled to himself.
Aside from his left arm being immovable, he felt better than ever. A full night’s sleep in, who knows how long. Omega by his side.
He gazed at her again.
Before, he would’ve felt frustrated and guilty about how much she’d grown already, about how much time he’d missed with her.
But he’d made peace with it last night. Omega was in his life now. He had another chance thanks to her, his brothers and so many other clones’ efforts to save him, to help him see the light.
He wouldn’t waste all their sacrifices — especially Tech’s — by dwelling on everything he’d missed, in every sense of the word.
He’d make the most of the time they had together. He owed Omega, all of his clone brothers and even himself that much.
Crosshair felt his eyes welling with tears as he looked at her and contemplated it all.
Unable to use either hand, he blinked the tears away as best as he could and closed his eyes. Remembering what Omega had once taught him, he focused on the sound of her breathing and his own. The distant waves, the rustling leaves, the chirping birds all faded into the background.
Crosshair knew it was vain to wish this moment would last forever. The light hitting his eyelids grew slightly brighter every second, and Omega would probably wake up in an hour or so.
So, he took it all in, along with each breath.
This is who he was now, and he never wanted to go back.