Crosshair is the last to warm up to the tiny infant girl rescued from Nala Se's laboratory, but even he could not help but love her.
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For @star-farer's Ik'aad (name under construction) AU! Omega is very smol in this one, and I gave her some premature baby qualities (based on myself).
“This is insane, even for us,” Crosshair growled. “I don’t want any part of it.”
“You can’t say that!” Wrecker cried indignantly.
“Yes, I can,” Crosshair insisted, meeting his angry glare. “This shouldn’t be a situation in the first place.”
“What was I supposed to do?” Hunter spoke up for the first time since the argument began. “Just leave her to die?”
Crosshair stared at the tiny child laid out on the table, limbs barely moving in protest as Tech worked to deliver nutrients intravenously. He hadn’t known it was possible for humans to be so small, let alone clones, regardless of the fact that she was a she. Tiny sounds filtered into the air, attempts at crying from lungs struggling to breathe, and he could not imagine a child so weak could survive. As much as he detested Nala Se’s decommissioning of the child, his brothers were only bringing pain on themselves by becoming so heavily involved with this child Hunter had practically stolen from her laboratory.
“I don’t know what you should have done,” he muttered, “but this isn’t what we’re meant to be doing.”
“We are experimental units, and so is she.” Tech cupped the child’s head to keep her still, his palm nearly engulfing the entirety of it. “It would be wrong to leave one of our own.”
Her hands and feet were so small, her eyes just barely able to open. Veins protruded beneath her skin where what little fat she had could not cover them. She was too small, and the sight of her set an uncomfortable weight on Crosshair’s heart.
“Do what you want,” he finally said, turning away, “but don’t expect me to get involved.”
And yet, despite his expectations, the child lived. He did not visit her in Nala Se’s laboratory, but he heard about her progress from his brothers, how she was growing stronger with each passing day. They called her Omega, taken from her batch designation, and the next thing he knew, she came to stay semi-permanently in their barracks.
It was then Crosshair came to realize that stronger also meant louder. When Omega needed something, she made it known to everybody, and the noise wore on his already dwindling patience. The only way anyone got any sleep was with ear protectors taken from the shooting range, and he continued arguing with his brothers about their new charge, even threatening to move to the reg barracks.
With the massive distraction the child provided, he feared they would lose their squad’s nearly perfect success rate, and that was something his brothers no longer prioritized as much as he did. That was even worse than the kid herself in his mind, and that shift led to several confrontations that teetered on the edge of a fistfight. He kept as much distance as possible between him and the kid out of principal, but if it was one thing he could count on his brothers to do, it was breaking through every barrier he tried to put up.
“Crosshair, I need your help.”
One glance was enough to make Crosshair bristle instinctively as Hunter approached him, carrying the small, squirming bundle of Omega against his shoulder. So far, he had not been asked to help with the child after making his opinion clear, but he had a sinking feeling that was about to change. Even Hunter’s tattoo could not hide the sleep-deprived weariness on his face.
“What do you want?” Crosshair growled.
“I have a strategic assessment soon, but someone needs to watch her.” If Hunter noticed the tiny hand grabbing at his hair, he did not react. “All you need to do is get her to go back to sleep. Wrecker should be back within an hour.”
“I’m busy.” It was a lie, and a weak one at best, but Crosshair tried it anyway.
“Don’t give me that.” Hunter’s gaze sharpened, the glaze of fatigue replaced by fraternal irritation. “You don’t have anything until later, and there’s plenty of time.”
Motivated by spite, Crosshair asked, “Why don’t you just leave her with Nala Se again?”
A shadow passed over Hunter’s face, and he cradled Omega’s head as if he wanted to shield her from the mere idea. “We want to avoid that if we can. Nala Se takes the opportunity to perform…procedures on her.”
As much as he didn’t want to, Crosshair could not help but feel sympathy. He knew what that was like, which was deeply unpleasant at best, and he disdained Nala Se even more for the fact that she would so callously experiment on the child.
“I don’t know what to do with her,” he said, speaking out of honesty rather than an attempt to avoid it. The next thing he knew, Hunter handed Omega over, settling her gently in his arms. She suddenly seemed even more small and frail, her weight barely existent against him.
“Support her head and torso,” Hunter instructed, “and make sure you have a good hold on her.”
Crosshair awkwardly did as he said, trying not to look at the little face beneath him. Handling guns was a delicate process he had practiced to perfection, but somehow holding Omega made that seem simple by comparison. “…What do I do now?”
“Just hold her until she falls asleep, then put her in bed. She’s already fed and clean, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
Crosshair eyed Hunter skeptically. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
Crosshair sighed, trying not to feel the tiny fingers prodding lightly at his chest. “Alright, fine, but you had better pass that assessment.”
Hunter smiled, but there was no teasing towards his acceptance, only sincere relief. “Thank you, brother. I owe you one.”
“Careful,” Crosshair muttered. “Depending on how this goes, I might actually take you up on that.”
Within a matter of minutes, Hunter had gathered his equipment and departed from the barracks, leaving Crosshair alone with his unexpected charge. He finally made himself look at Omega, bracing for tears now that Hunter was gone, but none came. She merely stared, sucking contentedly on her fingers. Her face had gotten rounder as she gained weight, no longer so alarmingly bony, and he was struck by how large her eyes were. They were brown, containing nothing but wondering innocence as she looked at him.
“Just make my life easier and go back to sleep,” he grunted, keeping his voice low. The sooner she slept, the sooner he could forget this had ever happened.
Omega was clearly of a different mind, because she didn’t fall asleep immediately. Several minutes passed, but she remained awake, docile with an occasional bout of squirming. When it became clear that she would not oblige him with quick slumber, Crosshair tried to remember the methods of soothing he had seen his brothers use.
With a sigh, he stood up, carefully repositioning Omega so she was resting upright against his shoulder. She made a small noise but did not protest beyond that as he fixed the loose ends of the blanket, beginning to walk a slow circuit around the room. Little fingers flexed against his shoulder, and on some impulse he took hold of one hand, raising it to inspect it. The soft skin below her knuckles was blemished by scars from needles and intravenous lines, still red in their newness. Some of them were from Tech’s procedures, but not all of them. He didn’t want to think about what other scars she might have, or from what.
Omega curled her fingers around one of his, and he pulled back instinctively, eliciting an unhappy whimper from her. He quickly returned the finger, his heartbeat spiking at the potential of having to deal with a crying child. “Relax. I was just surprised.”
Omega took Crosshair’s finger again and settled down, resting her head on his shoulder. He chanced a look at her, and was struck by the innocent tranquility of her expression. It seemed that she was perfectly at ease with him, like everything was right in her little world. He never thought it was possible that someone could be so peaceful in a life spent training for war, much less because of him, and the fact that someone so small and fragile as she was left him amazed.
Suddenly, Crosshair’s earlier remarks to Hunter were made bitter with regret. Handing Omega off to Nala Se would surely disrupt her simple peace, and she had already been through enough by simply fighting to stay alive. Nala Se would not care about the child’s comfort; she was still an experiment, who had initially been left to die. It was disquieting to consider what she had been made for, since the major difference of being female provided no tactical advantage in war that he could see, but he tried not to think about it as he walked in slow, measured steps around the barracks.
Omega clung stubbornly to wakefulness, and as Crosshair began to lose count of how many laps he had made, he decided to try something different. He took her to the window where she could look out at the rainy Kaminoan day, and he felt a sense of accomplishment when she let go of his finger, turning wide, wondering eyes on the glittering raindrops.
“You’re not so bad when you’re calm,” Crosshair murmured, keeping his voice just barely louder than the rain. “Like Wrecker after a few strength assessments.”
Omega shifted a little, but did not seem disturbed by his words, and he surprised himself by continuing to talk.
“I guess you’re better off here. My brothers have kept you alive when that longneck couldn’t be bothered.” A pang of guilt hit Crosshair. “Or me.”
Omega continued to watch the rainfall, oblivious to his musings. She leaned against him with no trace of unease, like he had spent time alongside his brothers, tending to her day and night though he had never even held her before.
“I’ll do better than I have,” he decided, a quiet promise only for her to hear. “I guess you are one of us, in a way. I’ve never seen another clone like you, and you don’t deserve to be tossed aside.”
A slight pressure on Crosshair’s shoulder made him glance down. Omega was finally giving in to sleep, her eyes shut, and the sight ignited something in his chest, a fierce desire that her peace should remain undisturbed by those who saw her as a faulty experiment. He began to understand what had gripped his brothers so tightly, because it was slowly taking him too, wrapped in round cheeks, tiny limbs, and wisps of pale hair.
Wrecker crept into the barracks, paying close attention to each movement he made, expecting that Omega would be asleep. However, he did not expect Crosshair to be with her, reclined on his bunk with the girl splayed on his chest. The sight made him stop in his tracks as a smile slowly overtook his shocked expression. He had figured it would only be a matter of time until Crosshair gave in, and he wished Tech had returned to document it.
After taking in the surprising scene, Wrecker eased forward, intending on relieving Crosshair, but as he got close the sniper opened his eyes.
“Leave her until she wakes up,” he muttered. “Not worth disturbing her.”
Wrecker grinned, which Crosshair met with a scowl, shutting his eyes again and adjusting himself with utmost care. That did not dissuade Wrecker, who continued to smile even as he went about his business. He had hoped Crosshair would eventually understand, and seeing them together was worth the wait.
I need more seasons of The Bad Batch! I can’t believe this amazing series is almost over… what am I supposed to do after? Just live my life like nothing had happened? These characters are part of me, and I don’t want their story to end.
Some time ago I drew a short comics about instead being trapped in cryofreezer for decades, Kix was found by Clone Force 99 -> [LINK] <-. Now imagine him settling in as a mother henmedic of the Havoc Marauder crew.
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see more Kix the CF99′s medic posts here -> [LINK] <-
