Chapter Text
I’m reaching out for the moon and stars beyond it. Is it you I will find? The moment that life hits you, you can’t avoid the issue: You’re disconnected from the world you thought you were a part of. But if you close your eyes and let go, nobody else decides the words you see in your heart. Lost in time, there’s an answer in the stars for me, I will follow the signs ‘cause I know when I reach the end it’s you I will see! I wanna have you here beside me. Maybe it’s a dream, I don’t wanna wake, even if a light goes out: We didn’t waste our time here it’s now or never!
—millennium parade × Belle「U」 (English Version)
1. U
Hunter really didn’t know if he had a headache from stress or from the sudden noise .
Could he remember what he was doing before having the headache? Absolutely not.
Should he question it? Probably! Was he going to? Nope. He didn’t have time for that. At all.
But then appeared the little Jedi Commander asking for their help, and suddenly his headache just kind of … exploded?
… He was back on Kaller?
How was Crosshair just… there ?
How was no one questioning how Tech was standing and breathing?!
Why was no one else as confused as him?
The Jedi!
Before he could tell Wrecker to come back, the man was yelling in joy about finally being able to destroy something, and everyone else followed!
Seriously, was he in command, or not?
Hunter would like to think he wasn’t panicking.
Omega would definitely tell him he was panicking.
Omega?
What .
Suddenly Wrecker was shoving a boulder down a hill, and while he was averse to killing Jedi, droids he had no problem with.
Headache or not, the physical headache in front of him he could deal with.
He could think about everything else when the droids were taken care of.
“If you’re done hiding down there, I suggest you launch a counterattack. Another droid battalion’s approaching.” He found himself ordering. Again. Technically?
The… fewer Clones around these Jedi in the coming moments were going to be easier to protect them from. And hopefully, he wouldn’t get questioned to hell and back when he ordered his squad to knock out every last one of Grey’s battalion.
“There you are, Little Jedi! You missed all the fun!” Wrecker said joyfully.
Oh, hell, now that he could see this Jedi without the haze of command? He was no more than Omega’s age. Maybe a little older but still…
A child ! Did he survive? Oh Stars, say this kid survived being hunted down.
“If my intel is correct, the General will not need any of us.” Tech was saying.
Crap. Too soon.
Even if General Kenobi did take Grievous down, Hunter would still need to deal with the Clones suddenly doing a one-eighty on the two Jedi in front of him.
How the hell would he explain that? Or that he even knew it would happen? He didn't even know how he knew in the first place!
Maybe he could stash the kid somewhere? Perhaps Wrecker could help hurl him over the ravine, where he could hide while he double-backed for the General? Not that the Jedi couldn’t throw themselves over the ravine just fine. He remembered the kid doing it in a panic. What he didn’t know was if the kid could do it on command.
Hell, then he would still need to worry about Crosshair, and maybe even himself.
How would he explain not killing two Jedi, as ordered, when ordered to ? Then whacking Crosshair unconscious. Stunning Grey’s entire battalion, hauling ass to stash the two Jedi he refused to kill, then back to Kamino to de-chip them all, with Crosshair and Wrecker going first. Then hauling ass, with a child , out of a newly formed Empire from the Republic’s ashes to hide?
How?!
Then how would he explain leaving no stone unturned to find Omega, or if Omega, in most likelihood, found them first, just like last time and him wanting to keep her? He got asked it multiple times before, and he still didn’t have a good enough answer for everyone.
His headache got worse. He just really hoped it wasn’t the signs the chip was acting up due to the presence of the two Jedi.
Hunter saw Grey getting a communication. What was the saying? It was better to ask forgiveness than permission?
Yeah, he was about to become the embodiment of that.
Before the little Commander Jedi could rush off with Wrecker, before Grey could answer, Hunter efficiently and effectively stunned Crosshair.
“ What! ” Most of them asked as Crosshair fell limp to the snow.
“Hunter?! What!?” Someone was asking.
Grey wasn’t even aware, he was transfixed on Palpatine, on the new Emperor .
“Execute Order 66!” Chancellor Palpatine ordered.
The chip activated in Grey’s mind, and Hunter acted before they could shoot. He stunned the group before they could trigger their blasters. With a look to his side, he noticed that Tech and Echo noticed Grey readying his blaster, and where that weapon was being aimed at.
Grey dropped, stunned and unconscious, and his communicator rolled in the snow to his side.
“Why did you just…?” Billaba was questioning through a frown.
Hunter didn’t know the Force, but he had a feeling she knew, or at the very least, she would soon find out.
The Jedi Commander was frowning in confusion.
“What’s going on…?” He asked quietly.
“I apologise, it seems you should not trust us.” Hunter said apologetically.
And he wouldn’t be able to trust himself, or any of his brothers, until he knew they were de-chipped.
He made a peace gesture, then threw his knife and blaster down, and glared at his squad to do the same.
“Grey and his men just made to attack them, I am not doing the same.” Hunter growled.
Every time he looked at the kid Jedi, all he saw was Omega.
Echo, Tech and Wrecker all did the same.
“So you say, but you had the chance to take us out, still do, and yet you do not…” Billaba questioned.
He watched as the kid Jedi moved closer to his Master, and she let him move behind her protectively.
How many children were lost to this war already?
“Let’s just say we don’t follow orders very well.” Hunter said, shrugging one shoulder.
“Uh, hey guys?” Wrecker called nervously, causing them all to turn to where Wrecker was pointing up the hill. “You know how we’re not so good at following orders? But what about them?” Wrecker asked, seeing the rest of Grey’s men coming back.
“I don’t exactly trust them to not follow Palpatine’s order?” Hunter said.
He had history on his side, but two Jedi behind him that was making his headache worrisome. He needed to protect the Jedi, suddenly against all his brothers, himself if he went haywire, and a newly formed Empire , which none would hesitate to shoot them if he wasn’t looking, wasn’t conscious. Hell, he didn’t know if he could trust himself if the order activated inside of him.
Suddenly, Grey’s communicator chirped out an incoming message, making Hunter cringe in panic.
“Retract previous order! Do not act!” General Skywalker was suddenly ordering through Grey’s communicator.
Huh. So that was new . And unexpected .
He saw up ahead that his brothers stopped running, put their guns down, and looked as confused as he could guess he was, even with their helmets on.
“What is going on?” He heard one ask.
“Were we just…?” Another asked, sounding completely horrified.
If he remembered anything about battalions, it is that they all had at least one General, and/or one Commander (if there was one), assigned to them. So they had probably gone through several rotations or even cycles with Billaba and her kid Jedi.
It would be as horrifying to them, just as it was to them when they turned on Omega.
Even if something had changed, there was still a droid battalion they needed to face off, and he was completely unsure if he could trust that Skywalker’s back out of the order would stick.
“Go and make sure that droid battalion doesn’t make it over the ridge!” Hunter ordered.
All of them flinched, but some of them saluted before they turned around and ran off.
The fewer Clones…the better, especially with a Jedi around, and he could barely think straight as it was.
The hours that followed were very different from what Hunter remembered them being.
It didn’t end with Grey and his men gunning down Billaba, or them chasing the Jedi kid into the forest in confusion. Billaba kept her kid close, and by then Hunter found out his name was Caleb, but he didn’t begrudge that Billaba was eyeing them warily.
He was eyeing the rest of them warily as Grey’s men took down the remnants of the droid battalion that hadn’t given up once Grievous was taken out.
An attack that Hunter made sure his squad didn’t participate in, instead staying close to the Jedi protectively, just in case.
Hunter flinched when Billaba’s communicator binged out to inform her of an incoming written message. From what he could see out of the corner of his eye was that it was a request from General Kenobi to state whether or not she and Caleb were alive, and a retreat order for all remaining Jedi.
He, too, got a similar order from Kenobi, to return to Kamino for medical evaluations.
One he wasn’t going to skip out on.
“Wrecker! Grab Crosshair! We’re moving out!” Hunter yelled, while ironically stunning the man again, for good measure.
“Will do!” Wrecker announced as he waved bye to Caleb.
Caleb warily returned the gesture, but stuck by Billaba, who bowed at them.
“Thank you for keeping us safe.” Billaba said gratefully.
Hunter nearly scrunched his nose up. “Don’t thank us yet. We don’t know what’s happening. But Grey should be okay momentarily to get you back to your ship.” Hunter said.
Grey was disorientated from the stun, but he looked better than his men, who actively acted on the order, while he couldn’t remember any different, since he was unconscious at the time.
But Grey nodded and gathered his men.
“General Billaba?” Grey was asking, guilt heavy in his voice.
“I have a feeling this wasn’t your fault.” Billaba answered softly.
It didn’t make the guilty look in Grey’s eyes go away, but it helped with the grief on his shoulders.
Grey looked at him.
“How did you know…?” Grey was asking.
Hunter shrugged his shoulders. “As soon as I know, I’ll let you know.” He answered.
He damn well didn’t know how he knew, or how things had changed. Hell, this could be a fever dream after everything, and he wouldn’t question it.
He wasn’t about to stand here and accept his gratitude when Grey was helpless to an order he never wanted to follow in the first place.
“But in any case,” Grey started, holding out his hand. “Thank you for stunning us, and not killing our Jetiise . We’d like to keep them around.” Grey said in gratitude.
Welp, there the gratitude was, and yep, Hunter hated it. But he accepted the arm shake.
“Just see to it and your orders, vod .” Hunter ordered.
Grey saluted and Hunter got out of dodge.
They had their own orders to deal with. And as soon as they could get back to Kamino the better off they would be.
Hunter watched warily and nervously as the two Jedi were taken towards their craft, in the opposite direction of where the Marauder was.
“Tech, monitor all the chatter you can.” Hunter ordered uneasily.
“Copy.” Tech answered, having never taken his eyes off his devices in the first place.
Hunter then turned in the direction of the Marauder and walked.
His headache hadn’t gone away, in fact, it had gotten worse .
The sooner he got back to Kamino to deal with it, the better.
Besides, he had a kid to save.
/
/
Hunter wasn’t sure whether or not General Skywalker’s remediation of order 66 was good or not. Good, as in maybe something went differently for Palpatine? Or worse, as if something worse than the Empire was now in place. The Empire was bad enough. What worse could there be?
“Anything?” Hunter asked.
“A lot of confusion from the troops. Some of them saying they fired on their own Jedi!” Tech surmised.
“What?!” Echo was asking, sounding aghast, and somehow outraged at the same time.
“Why would they do that?” Wrecker asked.
“Someone stun Crosshair again.” Hunter advised.
Wrecker, who was closest, gleefully stunned Crosshair.
“And why are we continuously stunning Crosshair?” Tech was asking.
“You want him shooting us for not following orders as the troopers did? We actively chose to disobey orders by choosing not to shoot Billaba and Caleb back there.” Hunter said.
They took a second for that to sink in.
“They shot on the Mini Jedis?!” Wrecker said, sounding horrified.
“An order is an order to them, to us all. Would you have willingly fired on a child, if you were ordered to?” Hunter asked.
He watched the appal cross their faces, and then horror settled in shortly afterwards.
“They had no choice, and I’m making sure that we have that choice.” Hunter said steadfastly.
“And going back to Kamino will do that?” Tech asked in confusion.
“There’s something wrong with us, and I want to get it out of us before we blindly follow any more orders.” Hunter ordered.
While he was sure they weren’t going to blindly believe him if he said anything about the chips so suddenly. Especially when he couldn’t be sure he could back it up with evidence he didn’t know existed yet.
The flight back to Kamino filled Hunter with more and more dread as the hours passed. He left Wrecker to periodically stun Crosshair, since the man enjoyed doing it. He’d apologise later once the chip was out of his head.
Hunter was sure that he wouldn’t feel any sort of relief until he saw Omega, fine and well.
He ignored the pain lancing through his heart at how she would look at him like everything he could remember never happened. At how he would need to be indifferent, act like he didn’t know her, at how he would need to stay away from her until he had all of their chips removed.
Would she still be waiting, like the first time?
They weren’t received on arrival.
And Hunter didn’t know whether or not he felt any better about it.
But, just like before, unnervingly, they still walked into a level five lockdown.
Hunter was starting to dislike not knowing what was going on. He didn’t know whether or not the lockdown was because of the Republic becoming the Empire, or because General Kenobi ordered every single Clone back to Kamino for reasons Hunter could very well guess.
“We have our orders. Medical. Now.” Hunter ordered.
Omega didn’t meet them in the hallway.
And it sucked .
But he did manage to shove Crosshair into a medical bay, and the med droids seemed to know exactly what they were doing and removed the chip faster than what he remembered it being the first time.
He was unapologetic that Crosshair did not wake up when the medics said he would, due to the fact Wrecker had kept stunning him.
Then he ordered Wrecker in.
And was unnerved that none of the rest were able to remove their chips by the time they were all ordered for a general meeting.
Hunter was thoroughly shocked when it wasn’t Emperor Palpatine that addressed them, but a select few Senators that reported that Palpatine was an uncovered Sith plotting the demise of the entire Republic. Which made sense, and that he was up heaved by the remaining Jedi on Coruscant.
Which fell in line with the additional order from General Skywalker that Hunter thoroughly remembered not happening the first time.
But it did mean the Jedi weren’t all dead. There was a casualty list, that somehow the Senate didn’t think the Clones were to blame for, but indeed Palpatine.
By the tone of the conversation and the mass confusion about, Hunter could guess there would be further updates about the Republic, Jedi, and the Senate, all of which he couldn’t worry about now.
But he did think he caught a glimpse of Omega up next to Nala Se, but she was gone in a flash.
So, at least the kid was still on Kamino.
He would find her later.
As soon as he could, he would make sure none of them could harm her again.
“Back to medical. Now.” Hunter ordered, seeing the address was over.
He was uneasy with how many around them might still be carrying chips in their heads.
Echo didn’t need to be checked, but the medics checked him anyway, per Kenobi’s orders.
Tech went next and then himself.
By then Crosshair was grumbling, awake, and back to his usual grumpy self.
“Did you stun me ?” Crosshair was growling at Wrecker when Hunter went under.
Welp, that was one conversation he either avoided altogether, he’d wake up to, or he’d wake up to a bloodbath. Especially when he thought he heard Wrecker cackling joyfully.
Either way.
/
/
He didn’t thankfully wake to a bloodbath. He did wake thankfully to no headaches, a bandage he covered rapidly back with his bandanna and Crosshair being grumpy, but on their side, glaring at both him and Wrecker.
He wouldn’t apologise, and explaining why he stunned him wouldn’t make sense anymore, since the Empire somehow didn’t even exist in the first place.
He hated med bays, and he could see Echo was starting to panic, so he made sure they booked it as soon as they were all cleared to leave. Being marked down as de-chipped, and secure.
He froze and Tech and Echo nearly stumbled into him when he felt the familiar tingle telling him they weren’t alone. It caused him to look around and surely, up ahead, he saw her.
Omega fearfully looked around a corner, like every corner could offer her some new nightmare, or someone out to get her.
Not at all where she should be.
She scanned the hallway and immediately stalled at seeing him.
Hunter watched as her shoulders slumped in relief, and even worse was that her face began to crumble as she began to cry.
Oh, hell no!
What scared her so much!? He nearly went for his knife protectively, before stalling the movement when she bolted.
Towards him.
Crying !
“Hunter!” Omega cried out fearfully.
It wasn’t a surprise that she knew his name, since she knew it the first time.
But what was the surprise was that after she bolted towards him, she didn’t stop until her arms were around his waist tightly.
Hugging. Hugging! They were hugging! Huh. That was new .
Hunter really couldn’t help but follow the instinct to wrap his arms around her shoulders, protectively. He noted away at the back of his head that she was smaller than when he last hugged her.
“Why’re we back on Kamino! Why’d you leave me!” Omega yelled into him.
Oh.
Oh.
Ohhh.
NOTE:
Mando'a note if we didn't already know:
“Jetiise”, plural for Jedi.
“vod”, brother, comrade, mate, etc.