Things were no less strange on Kamino than on Kaller. Crosshair's confusion grew, but he never got a chance clear any of it. With the way his own batch mates reacted to him not following the order, Crosshair found it best to do what he normally did. Keep quiet.

They walked down the white, pristine halls of Tipoca City. It was not a stroll Crosshair missed. The lights pierced his eyes from every angle. He squinted as they walked, fighting the urge to put on his helmet like the regs who marched by.

The Bad Batch arrived at their barracks, now with more memories since the last time they came through the door.

"Ah, good to be back!" Wrecker said.

"The smell's getting worse," Echo remarked.

"You're still new," Hunter patted Echo on the shoulder. "You'll get used to it."

"Speak for yourself," Crosshair muttered and broke through the pair. He moved across the room and placed his helmet on the box by his bunk.

Wrecker took out his oversized knife.

"11 more successful missions!" Wrecker said, cutting tallies into the wall. "Like there was any doubt."

Crosshair scoffed at the statement.

"I don't know if I'd call Kaller a win," Echo said.

"Says who?" Wrecker said, taking a seat on his bunk while the rest deliberated.

It was not a conversation Crosshair wanted to join. He moved to the middle of the room and perched himself on the clutter-filled table where the light in the dim room was strongest. He used his foot to pull a chair close to him and planted his feet on it. He brought his rifle around and sat it on his lap. Crosshair began his routine maintenance on the gun while the others continued their discussion about the recent mission.

Wrecker came upon Crosshair without warning, shoving the Lula doll repeatedly in his face. Crosshair took the beating with a grimace. He knew it would be over sooner if he didn't react. Then Crosshair felt a hard push land on his chest and he flew off the table. He hit the floor on his back. A sharp pain throbbed in the side of his head.

"That's it," Crosshair growled and got to his feet. He glared at Wrecker, who, to Crosshair's surprise, stared back with an expression he couldn't place, but it made Crosshair severely uncomfortable. Wrecker's good eye lost its playful twinkle and was replaced with a dark pool of anger. His hands were clenched into fists so tight, it was sure to leave marks in his palms. It looked like Wrecker wanted to do much worse than tease him with a doll.

"Wrecker?" Crosshair asked with a tone of  caution.

Wrecker blinked and his shoulders fell as his body relaxed. The light returned to his eyes and he let out a boisterous laugh.

"You should see your face, Crosshair!" he launched Lula straight into Crosshair's mouth.

He slapped the doll away and fell into a chair. Echo, Tech, and Hunter's debate about the success of Kaller raged on.

"We didn't complete every objective. Crosshair let that Jedi kid escape," Hunter said, ripping his knife out of the table he was picking at. He gestured to Crosshair who resumed working on his rifle. "Or, will you tell us the truth?"

"We went over this," Wrecker said. "Crosshair didn't know what the order was, so he tried to take the tiny Jedi prisoner."

"So he says," Hunter didn't take his eyes off Crosshair. "But an order is an order."

"Since when?" Echo interjected. "For as long as I've known you lot, it's always a race to see whose going to challenge orders first."

——

Crosshair made it through the new emperor's speech with confusion and discomfort. His brothers didn't cheer at the announcement of a new Empire, but they didn't question it for a second. All except Echo.

The five of them walked the corridors of Tipoca City while a storm rumbled outside. Hunter held up his hand for them to stop.

"Lads, we've got company."

They turned around to see a girl tailing them. She reached just below the height of Crosshair's rifle. A Kaminoan headpiece rested atop her short blonde hair. She couldn't have been older than twelve. Crosshair noted her physique slightly resembled that of his own at her age.

"Hello," she greeted with a hesitant wave.

"What's that?" Wrecker leaned down to get a better look at the girl.

"Adolescent human female," Tech said. "Origins... uncertain."

It was a rare thing to see Tech at a loss for words.

"Looks like the little girl's got the better of you," Crosshair snickered.

"You are simplifying the situation, Crosshair," Tech rebounded and adjusted his goggles. "I simply require a little more time to gather information and analyze."

"Right," Crosshair swept his gaze back to the girl to see her smiling up at him. He placed a toothpick between his teeth and looked away.

"Or you could just ask her," Echo rolled his eyes and then met hers with a smile. "So, what's your name?"

"I'm Omega," she replied. "I was wondering when you guys would come back."

"You know who we are?" Hunter asked, stepping forward and brushing Tech aside.

"Hunter, Echo, Tech, Wrecker, and Crosshair," she named them off. "You're Clone Force 99."

"What're you doing on Kamino, kid?" Hunter asked her with a small smile.

Crosshair studied Omega as she interacted with his brothers. Hunter appeared to be behaving his normal self which Crosshair took as a good sign.

"Her job, of course," the Kaminoan scientist, Nala Se, answered for Omega, and Hunter backed off. "She is my medical assistant. One with a curious mind that causes her to wander."

A scowl fell over Hunter's face.

"Come, Omega," the Kaminoan said in her sterile voice, leading the girl away. "There is work to do."

Omega waved back at the Bad Batch. They stared after her until she was gone and continued to the mess hall.

——

As Crosshair filled his food tray, he wondered how he could get through to Hunter. As much as he enjoyed some rude banter, Crosshair was not overjoyed with the tense interactions he now shared regularly with his brother.

"Hunter," Crosshair started.

"What is it?"

"Let's put Kaller behind us," Crosshair said. "There's no use in us being at odds when we have other things to worry about."

There was a pause and Hunter spoke.

"Like what?"

"The next mission. This new Empire. Even the regs are talking about an Admiral Tarkin who's here to evaluate the clones."

"Alright," Hunter said with some hesitation. "But from now on, you do what I say, and we won't have any problems."

"That's the thing," Crosshair said with a hint of humor. "We've never been good at following orders, have we?"

Hunter gave Crosshair a look that made his chest deflate. His fingers curled tight around the edges of his tray.

"Yes, sir," Crosshair said to Hunter's terms and carried his tray to a table where two regs sat. They eyed Crosshair and stood up to go and sit at the dirty table Crosshair avoided in the first place. As he ate, Crosshair decided against saying anything more as he was joined by the rest.

"An Imperial's been sent to evaluate all clones," Hunter announced, earning a dirty look from Crosshair. "Everybody's talking about it."

"What kind of evaluation?" asked Echo.

"Hopefully not one based on obedience," Tech said. "Clearly, not all of us would pass that."

Before Crosshair could say anything, the girl from earlier plopped down with a tray next to Hunter.

"Hello again," Omega waved in greeting.

They all stared at the girl in silence.

"Omega. From earlier," she gestured to herself when no one acknowledged her. "In the corridor?"

"Yeah, kid. We remember," Hunter finally said. "Don't you have someplace to be?"

"No, I'll stay."

"You want to sit with us?" Tech asked. "That's never happened before."

Wrecker sat shocked and an amused expression landed on Echo's face. Crosshair didn't have it in him to tell his brothers he always found a way to to get rid of the regs so they could have a good table all for themselves. He was usually the first to finish getting food and had to find a spot anyways.

"What are you really doing on Kamino, kid?" Hunter pushed. "Don't you have a family somewhere? Parents?"

"Parents?" Omega repeated, as if the word was foreign to her.

"Check it out," said a reg walking behind them. "The defect squad's got themselves a new recruit. Another member added to the Sad Batch."

The reg laughed to himself until Omega jumped on the bench and launched a piece of bread at him. His soup spilled all over him. Wrecker cheered and punched Echo. An exchange took place between Omega and the reg which Hunter resolved. Wrecker stood up tall to intimidate. Crosshair and Echo shared a look. They both knew the matter was far from over.

"Know your place, lab scrabber," the reg said to the girl, and that was all he needed to say.

Wrecker chucked his entire tray at the reg and the other two with him. He somehow got a hold of several more and threw those as well, taking down another reg. The first reg made a lunge at their table, but Hunter knocked him down in one hit.

"Oh, not again," Echo's hand slid down his face in frustration. He ducked to avoid a piece of food flying at him and joined what had become a mess hall brawl. A situation Echo appeared to have experience with.

Soon, punches were being thrown in every direction and food sailed through the air. Crosshair focused on the meal in front of him and tried to ignore his surroundings. It wasn't long before Echo landed on his back in front of him and completely wiped Crosshair's meal off the table.

That was it.

Crosshair slammed his fist on the table, making his spoon rattle. He grabbed a tray and flung it straight into a reg's face. He took in his surroundings and noticed Echo staring up somewhere, distracted. A reg came into Crosshair's view, so he gave him a good punch.

"Echo, watch out!" Tech said, but he was too late. A reg slammed a tray on Echo's head and the ARC trooper passed out.

The fight subsided and clone medics arrived with a stretcher. They loaded Echo and carried him off with Omega at their side. The others in the mess hall stared at the squad in silence.

"Come on, boys," Hunter said. "Lunch is over."

They walked out of the mess hall and back into the blinding bright hallway. Pain flared in Crosshair's head, making him feel slightly nauseated. Wrecker picked up on Crosshair's sour mood.

"Think Echo's gonna make it?" Wrecker asked, giving Crosshair a shove that almost made him loose his footing.

"Who knows," Crosshair said, mostly to entertain Wrecker.

"Well, I bet you two credits he's gonna live," Wrecker smiled to himself and nudged Crosshair who doubted he even had the credits. "Just you wait and see."

"He's a lucky man if he doesn't wake up," Crosshair said, moving away from Wrecker who almost caused him to fall over.

They made it to the med bay and waited outside. The Kaminoan at the desk informed them that the prime minister had demanded to see the squad. They all exchanged glances at the news. Soon, they received permission to see Echo. He was sitting himself up with Omega standing at his bedside.

"Ha! Told you he's alive," Wrecker said to Crosshair. "You owe me two credits."

Crosshair scoffed and ignored him.

"CT-1409 is in stable condition," said the medical droid. "But I have some distressing news for the rest of you. According to your test results, you all appear to be genetically defective clones."

A shocked look came over Wrecker, while Tech casually adjusted his goggles.

"I will leave you to process the shock of this revelation," the droid said and flew out of the room.

"We've got a problem," Echo said.

"Not really," Tech reassured. "We are more deviant than we are defective."

"Not that," Echo shook his head. "Admiral Tarkin's here. He's the one evaluating the clones."

"The same Tarkin from the Citadel rescue when you, uh..." Tech trailed off. "How shall I put this?"

"Blew up," Wrecker finished with delight.

"And turned into that," Crosshair added, pointing at Echo with his toothpick.

"Yes," Echo sighed. "And he's not a big supporter of clones."

"We'll soon find out," Hunter said. "We've been summoned by the prime minister."

"Guess he didn't find that mess hall fight amusing," Wrecker said. "But I sure did!"

"Come on, let's get this over with," Hunter said.

Echo got off the bed and they all made their way towards the door. Omega chased after them.

"Wait!" she called out and stood in front of them. "The fight was my fault. I'm going too."

"Not happening," Hunter walked past her. "We'll handle this."

"But I-"

"Listen, kid. Our squad's nothing but trouble. For your sake, keep your distance. Got it?"

Crosshair hung back a moment as they all exited, watching the girl look after Hunter as he walked up to him.

"Ready?" Hunter asked and Crosshair nodded.

They found out they were summoned for a battle simulation to be observed by Prime Minister Lama Su and Admiral Tarkin. They geared up and headed for the training facility. During the simulation, Crosshair felt a strange peace. He and his brothers worked in sync, playing to their skills. For a moment, it felt like nothing had changed. Then the droids switched to live rounds, and Wrecker took a hit.

Anger filled Crosshair, but he couldn't do anything about it. The Bad Batch changed tactics. For all the arguments they had, when the time came to work as a team, nobody could outperform Clone Force 99. All but one of the simulator droids had been taken down. Crosshair yelled for Wrecker to throw his knife into the air. After all the years of fighting together, his brothers never questioned Crosshair. They always knew he would take care of it. Even when the odds looked bad. They trusted him.

Wrecker tossed the knife. It only took Crosshair a split second to look down the sight of his rifle and fire a shot that sent the knife through the head of the droid.

"Nice work," said Hunter.

The squad nodded at Crosshair. Despite all the hostility between him and Hunter, Crosshair wanted to believe he regained Hunter's confidence.

——

Tarkin gave the Bad Batch a new assignment after the success of their evaluation. With Hunter, Tech, and Echo readying the ship and gathering data about the insurgents they were to eliminate, Crosshair and Wrecker headed for the new Imperial armory to load up on weapons. The clone supply sergeant gave them a pleasant welcome.

"Hey, boys," Sergeant Storm greeted them. "Congratulations on the evaluation. I heard it was no easy feat."

"You can say that again," Wrecker groaned, massaging the area on his chest where he got shot.

"What do we have access to?" Crosshair asked.

"You have authorization to the entire armory," Storm said. "Let me know if there's anything in particular you need, and good luck on your mission."

"Finally, we can get our hands on some new toys," Wrecker exclaimed.

He grabbed a cart and pushed it into the room with Crosshair close behind.

"Think they've got scopes better than your eyes yet?" Wrecker asked.

"No," Crosshair replied, bored. He held up the spare datapad and checked the list of supplies Tech gave him.

Crosshair heard a sniff next to him. He looked out of the corner of his eye to see Wrecker wiping away a tear.

"It's so beautiful," Wrecker cried.

Crosshair rolled his eyes.

"Grow up, Wrecker."

Wrecker grabbed Crosshair's head and forced him to look up. They stood in a room near the size of the training facility they had just left. His eyes met a stunning array of meticulously organized blasters of all kinds lining the walls, stacks of ammunition, and enough detonators to send half of Tipoca City underwater.

Crosshair's mouth fell open enough for his toothpick to fall out. He eyebrows lifted as awe came over him. The sheer magnitude of the armory had Crosshair covering his mouth as he took it all in. His vision grew blurry and Crosshair blinked away the tears quickly, hoping Wrecker didn't notice. He dropped his hand and cleared his throat.

"We're wasting time. Let's load up."

Crosshair filled a container with thermal detonators and smoke grenades for himself and Tech while Wrecker made a run for the torpedos. He knelt down to get a good look at them.

"Ion, concussion, proton, assault proton," Wrecker listed. "They have everything!"

"You can't take everything."

"Ah, you're being... shortsighted!" Wrecker laughed.

"Took you long enough to come up with that."

After loading the torpedos onto the cart, Wrecker realized the Marauder could only handle one. He surrendered to Crosshair's torpedo limit and they headed for the hangar with the supplies.

"I'll say this for the Empire, they know firepower," Wrecker said, approaching Tech. "You should see the new armory."

"He actually cried," said Crosshair.

"Hey," Wrecker looked at him. "We both did."

Crosshair rolled his eyes in disbelief. Tech and Wrecker argued about where the torpedo was going to go. Wrecker picked up the weapons crate and headed inside with Tech chasing after him. Crosshair leaned against the outside of the ship and crossed his arms. Hunter walked up to him with Omega at his heels.

"Hunter!"

He shook his head and sighed.

"I told you to keep your distance," Hunter said.

"I know, but I need to talk to you," she said looking at them both.

"What is it, kid?" Hunter asked and Crosshair placed a toothpick in his mouth as he listened.

"That Imperial officer, I think he has it out for you," she said, face scrunching with worry. "I overheard him talking to Lama Su. He doesn't like clones.

A lighthearted scoff escaped Crosshair and Hunter chuckled.

"Ah, that's nothing new for us, but we get the job done," Hunter said.

"I don't trust him," she looked down. Hunter brushed off her words, but Crosshair took interest to her concerns. Besides Echo, no one but Omega brought up the strangeness of Imperial involvement on Kamino.

"There's nothing to worry about, the Empire is looking after us," Hunter reassured. "Besides, a mission's a mission."

Omega looked highly uncomfortable with his statement. Even Crosshair tensed at Hunter's choice of words. The Empire didn't think twice about killing them for the sake of an evaluation. He could only imagine where it would go from here.

"Then let me come with you," Omega said with a desperation that made Crosshair's gaze soften slightly.

"Kid you're not a soldier, and we have a mission to complete," Hunter said in a hard voice and Crosshair narrowed his eyes at him. Hunter looked taken aback at his own harshness and continued calmly. "It's dangerous."

"It's dangerous here too," Omega persisted. "Things aren't like before. We need to leave Kamino."

"What do you mean?" Crosshair asked, taking his body off the ship.

"I can't explain here," she whispered.

"Hunter! Crosshair! Let's go!" Wrecker shouted from the ramp.

"Change takes getting used to, give it time," Hunter said softly to Omega. His eyes squeezed shut and his hand flew to the side of his head as he groaned in pain.

"What is it?" Crosshair asked.

"Nothing," Hunter shook his head. "We need to leave."

Hunter stood up suddenly and slid on his helmet.

"Come on, Crosshair."

A hurt expression landed on Omega's face as Hunter walked away. Crosshair followed him up the ramp. Before going inside the ship, he took a last look at Omega. Every inch of her face was written with worry.

"Don't worry about it, kid," Crosshair said, taking his toothpick out. "For some reason, luck's always on our side."

He entered the ship and found Hunter watching him.

"What was that?"

"I told her to relax."

"I wouldn't bother," Hunter shrugged and placed a hand on Crosshair's shoulder. "Kids were never really your thing."

_______
A/n:
I know this chapter was kinda dull and pretty long, but it's gonna get better from here 🫶🏽