"The damage to the exterior hull is not ad bad as I thought it would be" The boys gathered around Tech as he tightened some bolts on the ship's wing. 

"How long till we're able to fly?" Wrecker asked, grumbling quietly about the rain. Tech sat upwards and wiped away the grease that tainted his skin, wearing a worn-down look on his cold skin, "Hopefully not too long. I'd say another few hours would do the trick."

It was not the good news Hunter wanted to hear, but with no proper repair bays or tools, they'd have to make do with what they had. "Alright, just do what you can."

Tech nodded, "Any luck with Ryki?" 

Hunter's shoulders fell, disappointedly shaking his head. 

"You can track her right?" Echo hopefully asked while Tech went back to work.

"I'll need to move soon. Tracks won't be easy to read in this weather, never mind how soggy the ground is." The Sargeant replied, kicking at the loose ground.

A little while later, Hunter entered the ship to gather some supplies he would need to track their favourite civilian. On the way out, a soft blue light attracted him to the centre of the ship. Omega eyed various screens displayed over the dashboard, running her fingers over the words and occasionally tapping some inputs. Hunter neared the little clone, eyeing her work. 

Of course, she was looking for Ryki too. "Tracking her comms is impossible 'Mega." 

The blonde turned a sour face towards Hunter, "It's not. I can find her. We need to find her." 

Hunter sighed and slowly turned her seat so she was now facing him, "We will, Omega. But Ryki's comms have been damaged and we can't track her that way." 

Omega's golden brown eyes began to tear up, "How will we find her?" 

"I have my skills remember. We'll find her in no time." 

"Promise?"

Hunter smiled, nodding his head and pledged his promise. "I-"

Blaster shots rang through the forest. Omega gasped and tightened her hold on the Sargeant, looking at him worriedly. Both herself and Hunter ran outside in a panic finding Tech, Wrecker and Echo in a similar alert state. "I thought we already took care of those Imps"

All eyes turned to the genius clone, "We did. That blast came from the jungle." Just as Tech said that several more blaster shots rang out. "Those shots couldn't have gone off far. The only other people out there are Crosshair and Ryki."

Hunter nodded quickly, "Alright, Wrecker you're with me. Tech, Echo, get this ship fixed. More Imps could be on their way. We're getting our people and then blasting away far from this planet." Wrecker quickly got ready as the other two of Hunter's brothers got back to the ship. 

Omega approached him, "I'll-"

"No. I'm sorry, Omega, but you can't follow." Hunter told her sternly. Wrecker joined him and they began to jog off toward the direction of the sound. 

Before disappearing into the giant fungus jungle, Hunter turned to face Omega. "We'll be safe, alright. I promise you. Stay with Tech and Echo." 

Omega gulped and nodded sadly. Wrecker gave her a two-fingered salute then both clones disappeared into the jungle. She could only hope that all of them would be able to reunite safely, and soon. Hunter, Wrecker, Ryki... even Crosshair.

---

Crosshair's body dragged along in the mud, half of his body pretty much sinking in the ground. Ryki puffed as she readjusted her hold on the sniper. Not to forget that her now twisted ankle didn't help much: mostly because she kept tripping over roots that she could not see.

"Would you try to stop jostling me?" Crosshair hissed in pain to which Ryki retaliated: "You're a lot heavier than you look, you know that"

Cross sighed under his breath, having no choice but to suffer a tad bit. His cracked armour kept poking at him, making his wounds run deeper and more blood seeped out of it.

The two ceased speech as they continue to trudge along the terrain. A little while later, Ryki managed to find a small clearing. She felt relief flood through her bones and immediately her legs gave out. Remembering the injured person beside her, the mirialan first lowered Crosshair to the ground and had him lean against a mushroom-like plant.

Finally, she too sat opposite him, stretching her sore feet out and allowing her tensed muscles to relax. Small pained grunts began to fill the air, reminding Ryki of the other existing presence.

Her green eyes trailed down Crosshair's beat up from before forcing herself to her feet and approached the man. Crosshair was too tired to flinch back so he carefully watched her movements. The rifle was lifted off her back and set on the ground. Pushing her black hair away from the face, she tried to tend to his wounds.

"Don't touch me" the sniper hissed like an injured animal. Ryki leaned back a little from him, "I'm just trying to help you."

"You're going to bleed out and die if I don't put some pressure on it." Crosshair looked down to where his hand laid over the destroyed armour. The scent of his blood entering his nose making him nauseous. "I'd rather die than"

Ryki cursed at his childish attitude and attempted for another try to remove his armour but Crosshair managed to swat her hands away.

"Stop acting like a child! I'm trying to save your life"

Crosshair answered with a simple no.

Having enough of his attitude, Ryki decided to use his ego to her advantage. "So, this is how the Empire's prized sniper dies? Here I thought you'd go down in a blaze of glory"

The sniper continued to ignore her. "Well, I guess the Bad Batch would run free then, terrorising the Empire and 'not' following orders..."

Ryki could see Crosshair react to her sentence. She was getting under his skin "I guess you would have failed to follow orders" she knew she was overstepping,  but she also knew that Cross' brothers would not want him to die like this. Neither would they want him dead, they needed their brother back even if he was a sort of blindly following wrong orders under the influence of the chip"

Crosshair now glared at the woman "You have no...right" he said through his pain. "I will serve the Empire and follow my orders"

Ryki hummed, "Good. So if you want to, you will let me heal you. Unless you'd rather go down not fulfilling your duties?"

It was quiet for a while, neither person relenting their fiery glares at one another. Crosshair clenched his jaw and finally relented. Judging by his body language, he seemed to have let down his guard though he didn't face the mirialan head-on. Nodding in satisfication, Ryki began to remove the chest plate and tight ate armour off the sniper.

The wound underneath was revealed, chocked with pieces of plastiod. The flesh looked horrid especially with the dirt caked at the sides of the torn blacks. Focusing her thoughts, she began to carefully pick out the pieces of armour. Every time the sniper flinched of pain, she halted her movements and let him recover from the pain before moving in to further clean the wound. 

She worked in silence pouring all her focus into Crosshair's wounds. After a little while, she stood up and busied herself looking at some plants. The mirialan healer came across a plant that had bowl-like leaves that collected rain water. Carefully plucking it, she carried the leaf over and poured the water onto the wound, clearing the wound off the mud. Crosshair braced himself and hissed in reflex at the stinging sensation that followed soon after. 

The sniper watched the mirialan work on his abdomen as she carefully peeled away the torn blacks and washed the blood away. He hated owing people. He hated owing his targets. Ryki was a target that he was more than determined to bring her in, but in their current situation, he was in no shape to even lift a finger. 

"There we go..." Ryki moved backwards to assess her work, nodding with hidden pride. Taking one last glance at the sniper, she warned him to relax: "I'm going to have to wrap your leg wound. It's gonna hurt so hold on to something." Crosshair clicked his tongue in annoyance, "I don't feel pain" 

Ryki rolled her green eyes while removing the scarf she had around her neck, washing whatever dirt remained in it in the water-collecting plant, before tearing the material into halves. His heart drummed wildly against his chest, the soft cloth came into contact with his torn skin and some pressure was applied there to stop the bleeding. Securing the knot, she moved to his abdomen. The cloth was too short to tie around his body, "You need to apply pressure right here, otherwise you'll suffer from more blood loss." 

Quietly the sniper nodded and replaced her hands with his after she placed the cloth on the wound. "That would suffice for now. I recommend you get some rest." With that, the mirialan left the sniper to his own, settling where she had previously. The rifle still laid in between the two. Ryki was debating if she needed to keep the rifle to herself. In her mind, the soldier was still capable to kill even if he would be sleeping. 

"Keep the rifle...be...on lookout" Crosshair panted. Ryki suddenly snapped up to him in surprise, "There's only one bullet left. Your too smart to use it against me, especially with your sentimental nonsense." 

It confused Crosshair as to why the woman went to incredible lengths to heal him when she could have just left him to die. He wanted to anyway but after she mercilessly stabbed at his ego he was fired up to prove her wrong. 

"This does not change a thing, woman. I'm still...ugh...taking you in"

Green eyes met darker brown ones, "Didn't expect it to." she replied emotionlessly. 

The sniper readjusted his position on the ground slowly and studied Ryki's hopeful gaze, "They won't come for you, you know?"

Ryki said nothing, opting to ignore him. Crosshair chuckled through his pain but the next sentence that followed had a heavy undertone of sadness and an ounce of betrayal, "They never return" 

The air around him shifted quickly, becoming sad and glum. Ryki realized that the sniper was projecting his hurt. He thought the Bad Batch left him intentionally, this is what it was. Hunter never went in-depth to what went down on Kamino with Crosshair. There was always a burden hanging on the Sargeant's shoulders whenever the topic was brought up. 

"You do know that at every chance they had, they tried to think of plans to rescue you from the Empire right?" Ryki tried to make him see the reality from the lie. "This, in your head-" she pointed to her forehead where the chip would have been in Cross' "It's controlling you" 

Crosshair sneered, "Don't act like you know clones! Like you know me"

Ryki laughed sadly, "Don't act like you don't care about them. If you wanted them dead they would be already" 

This made the sniper still, his breath hitching. "Wouldn't they, Crosshair?" Said sniper felt his pulse rise when she questioned his motives, fully avoiding eye contact with Ryki. Somewhere deep inside a longing feeling and worry bloomed. When he didn't answer her, she knew that deep down he still cared. She just pitied him that he was blind to the fact that his brother's still wanted him back. 

Crosshair quietly regulated his breathing to show no weakness, Ryki found that her window to make him hit realization closed once his features hardened again. 

"What does the Empire want me?" the woman asked, redirecting the topic.

"The Empire has big plans. Your just playing a small part in it and I won't fail my Empire" 

Ryki hummed, "Who wants me?" 

Crosshair was not obliged to answer. "We serve a greater purpose, none of which you could ever understand." was all he said after a dead-beat of silence, like an eerie warning. Ryki shivered at how calm he was acting. 

The sniper smirked, "If you only saw the bigger picture" 

'If only you joined me, Hunter'