Work Text:
“This is supposed to be the mine Cid purchased,” Omega says, gesturing towards the mine’s entrance. She hopes it’s not dangerous. She doesn’t want to drag her brothers into something else life-threatening. Not ever, and not without Echo to help her. He’s gone. She keeps expecting to see his black and red armor at her side, shadowing her, but he’s gone.
And who does she have to blame for that? If she’d listened to him more, he’d still be here. If she’d…
He was the first brother she had. She just wants him back. She wants to help, but she has to take care of her brothers, first. But who’s taking care of Echo now that he’s away?
“So… what’re we supposed to do?” Wrecker asks.
“Mine the ipsium,” Tech answers, “If there is any.”
Omega climbs up the platform, working on getting the mine door open. “Just be careful,” she requests. “Ipsium is fine when it’s refined, but before then, it’s highly unstable, so whatever we do, we gotta be careful. It’s like dealing with a primed thermal detonator.”
Wrecker laughs. “Sounds dangerous. I like it!”
With no insult to her little brother, she’s leaving him outside just for that reason. He gets too overexcited, and blowing things up is not what the mine needs with them inside. Cid would kill the few pieces remaining from the explosion.
Down below, Hunter crouches, lifting some rocks.
“Something wrong?” Crosshair asks him.
He shakes his head. “The storm’s moving away. I think that’s good.”
“It is,” Omega agrees, “We better hurry though, just in case. Hunter and Tech, you’re with me. We’ll mine the ipsium. Wrecker and Crosshair, keep watch. There are poachers in the area. If you see anything, comm me. And don’t. Wonder.”
The twins huff in unison. “Why don’t we get to do anything fun?” Wrecker complains.
“Watching will be funner than you think,” Omega says, begging that be true. The kids have a death wish. She would’ve thought Serenno would tone that down a little bit. “Besides, I need Tech to scan, and Hunter should be able to sense if something’s about to blow up.”
“Fiiiine,” Crosshair gripes, sitting on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the valley below. Omega wishes she knew what to say to him. She doesn’t. Instead, she just climbs into the mine, Hunter and Tech trailing not far behind.
They have to go towards the far back of the mine to even find the ipsium, and when Tech finally tracks it down, it’s u on the ceiling, mostly out of reach.
“I’m guessing somebody tricked Cid into buying a mostly empty mine,” Omega notes dryly, “First time something like that’s ever happened. Let’s just keep looking and see what we can find.” She really doesn’t want this to go nowhere. They could use the credits. She’s got four children to take care of, and now she has to do it all alone.
“Uh,” Hunter says, looking upwards, “I think that’s going to be hard to reach.”
“We’ll have to form a system,” she replies, “Hunter, can you reach it from that ledge?”
“If I can reach the ledge.”
Omega grips his hand, hoisting him up onto the ledge. She has to climb up onto one, too, so she can pass between him and Tech. Her brothers are five. This is begging for disaster, but she trusts Hunter, so…
Hunter can work the machine safely enough, and Omega finds herself thinking about the twins outside. Wrecker and Crosshair are always a disastrous duo, and she would’ve been out there with Crosshair once. Echo should’ve been in here working.
Omega understands why he left. She does. She just wishes it didn’t hurt so much, that she didn’t feel so empty and lost. When she left the 501st, she thought she’d have Echo with her forever. She really should have known better. Nothing in war comes with a guarantee. That was part of her training.
She knows walking away. Knows it’s hard. But she has no idea how to take care of the kids without Echo.
Were they that burdensome for him? Did she fail them all that badly?
She failed as a sergeant, and now she’s failing as a sister? All the way around?
And who’s gonna take care of Echo?
She can only hope the twins will be okay outside right now. They’ve all been abnormally quiet since he left, though at least they’re not fighting.
Tech seems especially withdrawn, and she remembers sharply how attached he’d been to Echo back when they first came. Tech was following him everywhere. And then… then he left.
Omega understands it, sort of, but the hurt doesn’t go away. She thought she and her brothers would be more important. Important enough for him to stay for. Which isn’t fair, Because the regs are their brothers too, but they’ve never… felt as one of each other.
It doesn’t seem fair to suddenly change. Not at her brothers’ expenses. All of them. Echo, too.
In the end, that’s all the ipsium they find, and Omega lifts the container, grunting at its weight. Ugh. She could use some help with this. She’s not as strong as her brothers. They exit the mine, closing the door behind them.
“The storm’s changing course again,” Hunter warns, glancing up at her, a light breeze ruffling his hair.
“The weather patterns on this planet are most irregular,” Tech says flatly, “It is certainly not an ideal place for us to be.”
“Why not?” Wrecker whines, “It’s fun! Except that it’s hot.”
Hunter inhales sharply, freezing, and Omega hears a distant sound, too.
Their ship.
She drops the ipsium case and jumps off the platform, sprinting towards their ship. The boys follow, a clamor of panicked voices following her, but when they skid to a stop at the landing platform where their ship was, and it’s gone, flying away and leaving them far behind.
“I thought you were on lookout?!” she asks disbelievingly, looking at the twins.
“There was no one there!” Wrecker protests, shoulders sagging with hurt.
“Clearly, that was not the case,” Tech retaliates, “How, exactly, did you and Crosshair manage to miss our ship being compromised?”
“Maybe if you’d decided to land it in our view, we would’ve seen the thief,” Crosshair snaps back, jerking in front of Wrecker, always ready to fight.
He isn’t usually like this. It’s just a phase. But it’s still hard to see. And it hurts when their home is gone, and now her and the kids are trapped here. Omega was the one who chose the landing area, on Tech’s suggestion. “It was the only place we could land,” she reminds quietly. “But we can’t stay here. Did anyone see a town?”
Hunter shrugs on answer. “I can’t feel anything. The storms have the electric frequences all messed up. The atmosphere here’s weird.”
“I did,” Crosshair answers, “Some klicks south.”
“I scanned a spaceport,” Tech offers, “Approximately 40 klicks south.”
“There could be a transport there,” Hunter offers.
“You know how long that would take?” Wrecker whines, eyes wide.
“We don’t have a long-range comm,” Omega points out, “We just need to move. Come on.”
***
She thinks about comming Echo. It would be easier if he was here. If she wasn’t trying to do this alone. If she didn’t have to do it alone. Her brothers will help her, but it’s her responsibility for her to care for them. It’s hard.
And then, of course, as they’re just walking, they get nearly run over a stampede of goats. And then the storm comes, closing in on them fast, and they have to run. Omega tries to shoo her brothers in front of her as they sprint towards the mine. Though the ipsium is definitely weighing them down. She had to split it up so they could all carry a manageable amount, but it’s still heavy.
Crosshair points out another mine they can take shelter in once the storm’s already on them, and they scramble on towards it.
Tech falls. Omega stops, sprinting back into the windy rage to pull him to his feet. “I dropped the ipsium,” he grunts, struggling to go back for it. “I have to get it.”
“Leave it,” she orders firmly, because there’s not time, pulling him back inside. They scramble through the entrance together, right on time for a deafening explosion to sound behind them, plunging them into darkness.
Crosshair is the first to react, pulling out a flashlight. “Sweet,” he states dryly, aiming the beam of light at the rock-covered entrance. “Now we’re trapped.”
“And we lost the ipsium,” Tech grumbles, picking himself up with Hunter’s help.
“I suppose that’s our fault, too?” Wrecker asks, glaring.
“It was just a few vials,” Omega sighs, rolling her eyes. “Come on. Let’s start digging our way out.” She sets a lantern down on a rock beside her, using it as a makeshift table to light the expanse.
“I will see if I can locate the Marauder,” Tech replies, pulling out his datapad. Omega tries not to mind him, or the crushing depression settling over all of them, and focuses on working on the digging. The rocks are large and heavy, and even with all of them, there’s not a lot they can do. Not even when Wrecker is already just as strong as Omega. She’s not surprised about that, exactly, but it’s still a little startling to see him rolling a rock twice his size, even if his face is tense with the strain. He doesn’t complain, and for once, neither does Crosshair, though the hurt both of them are radiating is obvious.
None of them are happy Echo left, though none of them know what to do about it, either. In truth, there’s not much either of them can do. They just have to deal with it, and Omega keeps questioning her every step and move, wondering if this is really the right choice. They couldn’t go with him, can’t for a few years yet, but…
That’s a long time to wait for a clone.
Many of her brothers died at eight. A few years is half their life. She’s just afraid of the same being true for the brothers who are part of her squad. They die all the time.
“The Marauder s transponders not relaying a signal,” Tech reports, looking up as the datapad beeps. Omega pauses, swiping her forehead off on her arm and sighing. She’s exhausted from the digging already. Mostly, she doesn’t know if the storm’s safely far away enough, or if it’s safe to use the ipsium to blow out the tunnel. What if more collapses in on them? “We can only assume it was disabled by the thief who commandeered it.”
“Then how will we get it back?” Crosshair asks.
“I don’t think that’s what’s important right now,” Hunter points out quietly, “We need to focus on getting out of here.”
Tech sighs, setting his datapad down. “Correct. And besides, the chances are high we will not be able to recover the Marauder.”
“What?” Crosshair stills, stepping away from the rock he was leaning on to catch his breath. Wrecker’s head snaps up beside him, too.
“Considering we have no way of tracking it –”
“Don’t say that!” Crosshair snaps. “We have to find it.”
“We can always get another ship,” he mutters.
“But the Marauder’s our home,” Wrecker protests, tears in his eyes. “We can’t lose that again!”
“Well, considering that you and Crosshair –”
“It’s not our fault!” Crosshair yells back, and Omega jumps up, opting to intervene.
“Look, it doesn’t matter right now,” she protests, “We have to find a way out of here. Maybe we can use the ipsium to blow our way out. Or, we can search the cavern for another way out.” She looks between her brothers.
“Very well,” Tech replies, snatching up his datapad again and heading towards the darkness of the back of the tunnel system, “I will search the cavern.”
Omega bites her lip, watching his retreating back. The black and white of his shirt is streaked with dirt and ash from the explosion earlier. And he’s still so small. But he’s also old. Trying to be too old too fast.
“It’s not your fault,” she tells the others, turning back to the twins, “Tech’s just… handling this hard.”
“I wish Echo didn’t hafta go,” Wrecker admits, kicking at the rocky ground.
“We all miss him,” Hunter agrees quietly, “I just think Tech’s taking it the worst.”
“That’s not fair,” Crosshair argues, “He doesn’t get to yell at us because he’s upset Echo left. It’s not like we wanted him to.”
Tech’s mind is different. He reacts very, very differently to emotion than his brothers. Omega’s gathered that much from him a long time ago. “I’ll talk to him,” she promises, “Just… try not to fight.”
Crosshair huffs softly.
Hunter reaches up, gently squeezing her hand. “Are you okay?” he asks her quietly.
No. Not if Hunter was able to see right through her like she’s translucent glass. She’s not doing any of this right. She’s got it all wrong, and she doesn’t even know where to go from here. Echo would know, but she doesn’t know how to function without him. It’s hard. He’d been beside her ever since she started working on her own. It was just the two of them, being their own little squad, almost as effective as a normal one. And it worked. It worked well, until things got… out of hand.
Until now, and she’s just sitting here, staring into the void of darkness in front of her.
“I don’t know. I’ve never been on my own without him,” Omega says instead.
“We’ll get used to it,” Hunter tries.
Omega sighs. “Not if all we keep doing is fighting with each other. Look, I know you’re angry at Tech, and he’s mad at you, but this isn’t helping. It’s like I said before, we’re family. And we don’t always agree, and nor do we have to, but we’re still family.”
“Are you mad at Echo?” Crosshair asks quietly.
It’s more complicated than that. Yeah. Somewhat. They promised to do everything together forever. She thought they would. But… it didn’t work. And she’s just stuck here. Worrying about everything while her brother is out there, risking his life for the brothers she never fit in with. But mostly, she’s mad at herself for not doing it right, even if there was no other way she could have done it.
“Yeah. A little. But I mostly just miss him.”
“I miss ‘im, too,” Wrecker confesses, “I want him to come back.”
“We all do. But he’s on another mission, so we have to figure out how to deal with this, and… can we please stop arguing? All the time?” She pointedly looks at the twins.
“I’ll try,” Crosshair offers miserably. “I just… miss Echo. And Kamino.” Fighting is taking a toll on him, Omega’s starting to think. There’s a difference between playful bickering and outright fighting, and lately, Crosshair’s beginning to lose sight of who his real enemies are. It hurts to watch when she’s so at a loss of what to do about it.
“Good. I’ll go talk to Tech. Try to keep digging while I’m gone, but be careful. If the rocks start falling further, we’re going to have a bigger problem.”
“Or we can use the ipsium to blow our way out,” Hunter suggests, “I’ll see if I can find the right spot to get it.”
Omega nods, even if her heart still weighs heavily. Hunter hugs her impulsively, tiny arms wrapping around her middle. Omega smiles, even if tears are still hovering in her eyes, patting his hair. Crosshair and Wrecker exchange glances, and then her other brothers crowd in on her, squeezing her in the middle of a hug. I love you, she thinks desperately, I can’t lose you, too. But that fear is just something she’s too afraid to voice aloud.
If something happened to any one of them, she would lose it herself.
Just like Echo after Fives.
“Good luck with Tech,” Wrecker offers. Omega nods her thanks and carefully disentangles herself from her brothers to go in search of their missing brother.
***
Tech’s hard enough to find that she deeply regrets sending him off alone. When she arrives, he’s wordlessly drilling ipsium from one of the rock formations inside – there’s far more in here than elsewhere. “Hey,” she says, climbing down from the doorway onto the ledge beneath. “Did you find anything?”
“I am not finding a way out, so I believe our best chance at evacuating this cavern is the ipsium.”
“Yeah. I thought so, too. We might as well at least fill the rest of the vials. If we really have to buy a new ship, we’re gonna need the credits.” Tech hands her the vial, and Omega climbs down with the satchel containing the few unfilled vials. “Are you okay?” she asks finally.
“I am fine,” he answers shortly.
“None of us are,” Omega points out. “Echo’s gone. We have to figure out how to live without him. And I know you’re still mad at the twins.”
“I do not process emotions the same as they do,” Tech replies, eyes narrowing as he fills another vial. “They think that means I don’t care. I do. I miss Echo as much as any of you. He was here for as long as I was. I am aware that, as a soldier, we must adapt and move on.”
“This has all been a lot. Kamino, Echo, now the Marauder. That’s why I’ve wanted to settle down. I want to do what’s best for you. I’m just not fully sure I know what that is anymore. I – I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“We have been far happier with you than we ever were on Kamino, regardless of how different it has been out here.”
“But I’ve made so many mistakes. I’ve gotten you all hurt. Over and over. I just want to keep you safe.”
“And you have. We would not be alive, had we been with the Empire. Omega, I have not regretted any of the time which we spent with you. None of us have.”
She wishes she felt the same, but if her brothers do, it still counts for something. Maybe. “Thanks,” she tells him meaningfully. “I just wish that was enough to keep you safe.”
“I do not think we need more than that.”
Her throat feels unexpectedly tight. “Thank you, Tech. I love you. You know our brothers do, too. We need to figure out where to go with Echo gone. How to handle this, and it’s something we need to do together.”
“I’m aware the ship being lost was not entirely Wrecker and Crosshair’s fault,” Tech admits begrudgingly. “Although being without it has…”
“I know,” Omega says, “It might’ve been our ship, but it was also our home. We really don’t have anywhere else.” She doesn’t need to explain that. Tech understands it, and now, thanks to the Empire and Kamino’s loss, so does every clone. “I tried to talk to the twins, but I think they’re still…”
“I would not say I was the kindest,” Tech admits begrudgingly, “I will try to rectify it.”
“Good. That’s all we need.” She squeezes his shoulder tightly. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
They do make it out. It takes a few explosives, but they figure it out, and the sun shines brightly overhead when they climb out of the cavern together. Tech scans the area with his datapad again, pointing them in the direction of the city he’d scanned, and they set out together, the brilliant evening sun shining bright overhead.
And even without Echo, even without their home, Omega feels a little more… lighted. Hopeful. More herself than she has in a while. Like maybe, they can make this work.