Chapter Text
They had spent the majority of their credits from the last job on the thick coat Omega now wore. She knew they did, even if no one would tell her as much. But something made from animal skin and fur and sized exactly for a child her size cannot have been cheap. Although it made her feel guilty to have the team’s hard-earned money spent on her, she guessed guilt was what resulted in this purchase in the first place.
After her experience being stuck in an underground burrow for an entire cold night on Gallion, Hunter had asked Tech if he could modify a pair of extra military blacks to fit her. It took some creative trimming and stitching, but her resourceful brother had managed it. After that, Hunter returned from a supply run with the bare minimum in food rations and a child’s coat. He seemed to take personal responsibility for the fact that Omega did not have anything in the way of cold weather gear. But she didn’t blame him. It was not his fault that she was raised with next to no possessions and had left Kamino with nothing but the clothes on her back. And it was not like they had been planning for her to get trapped overnight in near freezing temperatures. Still, that look on his face as it took her almost two days to fully warm up after being rescued could only be guilt.
She was determined to help earn the money back. As it turned out, having protection against the cold was going to be an important part of this next mission anyway. As soon as they landed on Voss and the ramp of the Marauder lowered, Omega stuck her head out to gawk at the white landscape. She had never seen anything like it. According to Tech, the majority of the planet was temperate, but the area they were headed laid high in the northern hemisphere during “winter.” She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that the landscape and climate of some planets changed based on where they were in their solar cycle.
It looked like a white, sparkling blanket had been draped over the surrounding hills and valleys for as far as the eye could see. “Wow,” she breathed. She started when the warm air that came out of her mouth formed a fleeting fog. Intrigued, she blew out a long sigh. As if her breath had been given shape, wispy trails stayed in the air for a few seconds before disappearing.
Excited, she turned to the closest person, who happened to be Wrecker. “Look!” she squealed. “Look what my breath does!”
He laughed when she showed him her discovery. “You haven’t seen the best part yet!”
Suddenly, her feet were no longer on the ramp. Lifting her up under her arms, Wrecker flung her straight off the side so that she went sailing in an arc and landed on her back—in something soft, cold, and powdery. Laughter burst out of her immediately. She had made a dent in whatever it was, flakes drifting in after her. She pinched some of it in her hands. It was frigid on her fingers and started to melt upon contact with her bare skin.
Wrecker was still chuckling when he reached her and offered her a hand up.
“What is this stuff?” she asked with a wide grin.
He scooped some of it up in his large hand like a shovel. “Snow!” She watched him pack it into a ball with his other hand. He then crouched down beside her, facing the ramp. “Watch this,” he whispered.
They waited for a few seconds until Hunter appeared in the doorway. Before he could look over at them, Wrecker hurled the snowball at his face. Unfortunately, Hunter’s reflexes were too quick to indulge his brother. He leaned out of the way just in time for it to miss him and hit the outside of the ship instead. Even though he was wearing his helmet, Omega could hear his frown when he turned to them. “Really Wrecker?”
“Awww!” the larger clone moaned. “You’re not supposed to dodge it!”
Omega could not contain her giggles. “Show me! I want to do it!”
“Hang on,” Hunter said, coming down to them. “Put these on first.” He handed her a pair of gloves that were too big for her. They were most likely an extra pair of Tech’s; while still larger than hers, his hands were the smallest out of the brothers. His nimble fingers served him well in his tinkering.
Omega pulled them on as far as she could. Even with the extra space left over, they brought warmth back to her numbing fingers. Wrecker wasted no time in teaching her how to compact the perfect snowball. He had her aim for the hull of the Marauder and demonstrated the best way to throw it. Hunter seemed content to let them have it for a few minutes while he returned inside to retrieve the rest of his gear.
She felt like she was just getting the hang of it by the time Tech emerged on the ramp. “If you would kindly stop attacking my ship, it would be much appreciated.”
Wrecker rolled his eyes. “We aren’t hurtin’ ‘your’ ship.”
“Regardless, we have an artifact to find.”
Omega was not ready to stop playing in the snow, but she was also excited to help with the mission. Maybe when they were done, Hunter would let them have a little more time here before they left.
“Now, as you remember from Cid’s cursory briefing, we are here to locate an engraved stone tablet thought to be in the ruins of this remote region,” Tech told the team when they had all gathered at the bottom of the ramp (except for AZI-3, who passionately reminded them that he had not been designed to function in freezing conditions). “From what I’ve gathered, if it does in fact still exist, the most likely place it may reside is at the top of that hill where a temple once stood.” He pointed to a medium-sized hill that looked far away to Omega. “We have no information as to the artifact’s exact description, but it is expected to be small enough to carry and possess an etching of ancient text.”
Hunter nodded. “Alright. We travel single file until we get there. We can spread out once we reach the ruins to look for it. Omega, keep near Wrecker in case the snow gets too deep.”
She and Wrecker shared a grin before he put his helmet on. She took up a place in front of him as they started off.
The snow immediately around the ship was about knee-deep on Omega, but soon tapered off to only encompass her ankles with each step. She watched her feet make footprints with fascination. She tried stepping directly in Echo’s tracks for a while and then made an effort to step right next to his so that their footprints would be side by side.
When the novelty of that wore off, she studied the hill they were approaching. She could not see anything special about it. “Tech,” she called, “what are ruins?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Remains of an ancient building or city that have been destroyed or fallen into disrepair. The temple we are headed for would have been abandoned some thousand years ago after the last of the Voss declined.”
“What happened to them?” she asked.
“No one knows for certain. The planet Voss was once the home of two distinct races: the Voss and the Gormak. They were at constant odds with one another, so historians think it likely that they eventually wiped one another out.”
“Oh. What would the temple have been used for?”
“The Voss highly venerated a class of Force-users among their race called mystics. Many shrines and temples used to exist on the planet that functioned as epicenters of healing and reflection.”
“So they were jedi?”
“By all accounts, no. They did not value the jedi’s input on how they should use the Force. The mystics relied on it to provide them with prophecies of the future, which were considered infallible. Many of these prophecies were recorded in stone on temple walls like the ruins we will visit. I suspect Cid’s client is a wealthy collector of rare artifacts who must realize how valuable a physical record of this bygone time period would be, historically speaking.”
Omega was trying to imagine what receiving a vision of the future must be like when something else Tech had said drew her attention. “They could use the Force to heal? Like, heal sick and injured people?”
“There are anecdotes from across the galaxy of many Force-users displaying this talent, though I personally never witnessed it while working with the jedi.”
“I’ve heard it’s a rare skill,” Echo put in. “Different jedi have…had…different specialties.” He went quiet then, his head drooping. It made Omega wonder if he had been close with any of the jedi before Order 66 was issued. She made a mental note to ask him sometime.
They continued on for a while, the hill growing ever bigger before them, when Hunter held up his fist in a signal to halt. They all fell silent, watching him. Omega had learned by now that when he did this and did not explain why right away, it was because he could sense something that the rest of them could not. The sergeant tilted his head to one side and then slowly to the other as though he was listening for something.
“What is it?” Tech asked quietly.
“Probably nothing,” he said after a moment. “Let’s keep going.”
The closer they got to the foot of the hill, the deeper the snow became. When it reached almost to Omega’s waist, Wrecker picked her up and set her on one of his broad shoulders. “You warm enough, kid?” he asked when she was settled.
She held onto the neck of his armor for balance. “Yep!” And she truly was. She found it incredible how warm the blacks kept every surface they covered. It was no wonder that her brothers were able to go about unbothered by the temperature with just their blacks, armor, and helmets protecting them. She was wearing her own, altered set underneath her regular clothes with the coat on top of that, so even while trudging through the snow, the only part of her body that felt cold was her face. The hood of the coat covered the majority of her head, but she was sure her nose and cheeks were red.
It took Hunter a few minutes to find a safe way up the incline. Tech guessed that it may have once been a staircase carved into the side of the hill. All that remained now was a slope more even than the rest of the hill with a few broken stones here and there that did not look natural.
Once they started climbing, the snow thinned enough for Wrecker to put Omega back down. She noticed that Hunter glanced back at her every few minutes to see if she was having any trouble. Maybe the memories of her sliding down a mountainside because of a groundquake were still too fresh. She could also feel Wrecker hovering closely behind her as though ready to catch her at a moment’s notice if she slipped. She wanted to be annoyed by their overprotectiveness, but the truth was she could not even blame them. She was starting to realize that her luck really wasn’t the best, and she hated how worried everyone got whenever something bad happened to her. So she placed her feet carefully, intent on staying safe for their sake.
She was tired by the time they arrived at the flat top of the hill. Walking uphill with the added weight of extra layers was a new experience. She had to take a moment to rest her hands on her knees. When she straightened back up, she found Hunter at her side holding a canteen out to her. Smiling at him, she took a long drink of water before handing it back.
“Let’s fan out,” Hunter told everyone. “Tech, you think this tablet we’re looking for could be attached to the remnants of the walls?”
“It is likely. Extracting it delicately will be key.” Tech looked at Wrecker pointedly.
“Hey!” Wrecker pouted.
“Just comm one of us if you find it,” Echo said. He held up his scomp hand. “I may be able to get it off the easiest.”
Hunter put a hand on Omega’s shoulder as the brothers separated and steered her along with him. She guessed they would be looking together. She didn’t mind. As long as she could be here participating in the mission, she would not complain. They branched off to the left as Echo went right and Tech and Wrecker went down the middle.
If this temple ever had a roof, it was completely gone. All that remained were uneven sections of walls, crumbling pillars, and large stones laying haphazardly across the fractured floor. Brittle brown vines that had been killed by the cold grew over the face of some of the walls. Hunter ripped them away to examine the stone underneath while Omega dusted off a layer of snow. If there had ever been engravings on the majority of the structures, they had long since been worn away by the elements.
They picked their way carefully through the ruins, examining every piece they came across. This temple must have been massive at one time. The ruins covered the entire top of the large hill. Omega wondered how many people must have been able to fit in it at a time. How many Voss had there been before they were wiped out? Although she did not know what the race looked like, she imagined figures walking about through the once-grand hallways, maybe praying or talking to each other. She imagined sick people coming here to be healed. It was as though she could feel the thrum of life that used to exist in this spot that had now gone as cold and silent as the snow that covered it.
Hunter’s hand was suddenly back on her shoulder. “You okay?”
Omega had not realized that she had stopped walking and was staring at the space between two cracked pillars. She shook herself. “Yeah. It’s just kind of sad. This planet used to be full of people. Now everything feels…dead.”
He hummed, nodding. “It happens sometimes. Civilizations come and go. But not everything is gone. According to the readings we got on the Marauder, there are still lifeforms here on the warmer parts of the planet.”
“Really?”
“Non-sentients most likely. Nature has a way of outlasting people and their problems. C’mon, if we find the tablet before Tech, he’ll be jealous for weeks.”
She laughed at the thought of that. “Okay!”
They searched for another half hour. The area was so extensive and required such attention to detail that Omega had lost sight of her other brothers. She was beginning to wonder if they would find what they were looking for at all. Maybe it wasn’t here. That would mean not getting paid, but at least Cid couldn’t accuse them of not looking hard enough.
She had just passed by another chunk of stone when she felt something strange. A feeling she didn’t quite know how to describe. It was like something snagged on her mind and pulled. She stopped walking. Blinking, she turned around. Nothing looked out of place. But something was telling her she should go look behind that rock.
The stone was leaning up against a section of wall, creating a small space at the base that was protected from snow. Omega crouched down beside it and peered into the hidden area. She could see a rectangle of stone a little larger than a datapad affixed to the very bottom of the wall near the floor. Markings of an unfamiliar language were carved into its face.
“Hunter!” she called excitedly. “I think I found it!”
He came and kneeled beside her to have a look. “Nice work,” he praised, patting her head through her hood. “I’d say you deserve to do the honors.” He took his comm from his belt and handed it to her.
With a smile stretching her cold cheeks, she activated the team’s channel. “Does everyone copy? We found the tablet!”
“Ugh, finally!” Wrecker answered through the device as Hunter reached into the hole to grab the edge of the tablet. He tugged at it cautiously, but did not come free.
“Where is it located?” Tech wanted to know. “Is it carved into the face of a wall?”
“Not exactly,” Omega answered. “It looks like it’s a separate piece, but it’s stuck tight.”
Hunter took the comm. “Come to our location,” he said into it. “Wrecker, we’ll need you to move the boulder in front of it and then Echo can pry it free.”
As he spoke, Omega could not help but reach in to touch it for herself. She ran her hand over its rough face, feeling the grooves of the foreign words. Almost absentmindedly, she took hold of the edge and gave it a small pull.
She was not expecting it to move. One corner slid forward with her actions. Intrigued, she took hold of the other side with her opposite hand and leaned back.
The tablet came free with a sound of grinding rock. She fell back on her rear with the artifact in her lap.
Hunter stared at her through his helmet. “...Nevermind,” he told the others. “Omega got it.” Lowering the comm, he asked her, “How did you do that?”
She shrugged, bewildered. “I don’t know. You must have loosened it.”
Though she couldn’t see his face, she could almost feel him frowning in thought. Suddenly, she had to turn her head to the side as an enormous sneeze picked that moment to attack her. She rubbed at her freezing nose, hugging the tablet to her chest.
“We’re heading back to the ship,” she heard Hunter say into the comm. “Omega needs to get out of the snow.”
“I’m fine!” she insisted.
Hunter ignored her. “Meet us there.”
“Copy that,” Echo’s voice replied.
Hunter stood and offered her a hand up. Clutching the artifact with one arm, she took it. She declined his offer to carry the tablet. It wasn’t very heavy, and being the one who found it, she felt responsible for delivering it safely.
As they made their way back down the slope, she kept staring at the apparently valuable item. “What do you think it says?” she wondered out loud.
“No idea. I’m sure Tech will take a look before we hand it over to Cid.”
It only took one misstep and near trip to remind her that she needed to watch her step. Of course Hunter didn’t miss it. She only convinced him not to carry her the rest of the way down by promising to be more careful. Thankfully, they reached the foot of the hill without incident and she saw his shoulders relax.
After he helped her through the deepest part of the snow, Omega looked out across the white plain. The Marauder was just a bug in the distance, its dark color standing out like a speck of dirt on a clean tunic. Maybe it was a good idea that they did not wait for the others to catch up to them. By the time they got back to the ship, she was probably going to be ready to take a rest and eat something.
Omega was not sure how long they had been walking when Hunter abruptly froze. He stopped her by holding a hand out in front of her. She looked up at him. He was listening again. Was this the same spot as before?
“What—” was all she got out of her mouth. The next thing she knew, she had been roughly hoisted up and tossed. Before she even came to a hard landing in snow that was not as deep as it had been around the Marauder, she heard a terrible cracking sound. The wind was knocked out of her lungs. A splash met her ears as she struggled to breathe.
Gasping, she forced herself up. Where Hunter had been standing, there was now a jagged hole in what was clearly not solid ground, but was in fact a layer of ice over a still body of water.
“Hunter!” she croaked between staggering breaths. Omega dropped the tablet in the snow and inched forward on her hands and knees. The water inside the hole sloshed. Hunter’s helmet surfaced—and then floated, no longer attached to his head. The clone did not follow it.
“Hunter!!” she screamed louder. She dared to scoot closer, listening as the ice creaked precariously beneath her hands. She scrambled to dig out her comm from her coat pocket. “Help!” she cried into it with no preamble. “Does anyone copy?”
“We’re here, Omega,” Echo responded. “What’s wrong?”
“Hunter fell through the ice!” She kept her eyes on the water, expecting him to pop up at any second. “He’s not coming up! He’s…he’s not coming up…”
“We’re on our way!” Tech cried. “Stay as far away from the place where the ice broke as you can!”
Omega’s whole body shook. Was Hunter’s armor weighing him down? Had he been dragged away from the hole to another part of the lake? She could not see anything from this vantage point. The snow covering every surface masked any view she might have had through the ice. She felt warm tears carving tracks on her cheeks. He wasn’t coming up!
It had been too long. How long could a person survive underneath freezing water? She could not just sit here while he drowned! She leaned forward a bit more. “I’m going in after him!” she told the others decisively.
“OMEGA, DO NOT!”
She flinched. She had never heard Tech scream like that.
“A drowning person cannot control their actions! You will be brought under as well!”
“Stay where you are!” Echo ordered firmly. “We can see you. We’re almost there!”
So she stayed, useless and crying, sucking in breaths that Hunter couldn’t take. It seemed like far, far too long before she heard her brothers running toward her.
Someone pulled her back from behind as Wrecker dove into a slide on his stomach. Cracks appeared like branches around him, but the ice held. He plunged one long arm into the frigid water. Tech held onto his feet in case he needed a quick rescue, which meant that it must be Echo who had her in a firm hold against his chest.
She watched Wrecker fish around in the water, grunting against the cold. “C’mon,” he muttered through gritted teeth as he waved his arm back and forth. Horrible seconds ticked by. Finally, Wrecker took a deep breath and submerged his head. He seemed to be reaching farther down as his arm went under up to his shoulder.
Then, he pulled himself back up with a bracing shout. The ice continued to crack underneath him as he drew his arm back. His big hand was grasped around the back of Hunter’s armor.
Omega released a mewling cry, squeezing Echo’s hand. Hunter was completely limp. His light brown skin was too pale. Worst of all, his eyelids and lips were tinted blue.
Tech helped Wrecker fall back away from the broken ice. “Lay him down!” he instructed.
Visibly shivering and wet, Wrecker set Hunter on his back. Tech unclipped their sergeant’s chestplate and all but threw it aside. He lowered his ear down to Hunter’s face. After a couple seconds, he cursed; something Omega had never heard him do. He held two fingers against Hunter’s neck. “Pulse, but no breath,” he reported curtly as he fisted his hands together over the middle Hunter’s chest.
Omega knew what he was doing as he began to push down on his hands in a practiced rhythm. Even though she had been taught mostly to use the technology available in the Kaminoan medical labs, she knew that field medics were trained to perform tasks without the aid of machines if necessary. This meant that there was water in Hunter’s lungs that was preventing him from breathing. This meant that if they did not get it out, and he didn’t take a breath within the next minute or so, no oxygen would get to his brain. His organs would shut down and his heart would stop. She hated that she knew these things.
“No,” she sobbed, bowing her head forward. “N-no…”
Echo held her tighter. He didn’t try to tell her everything would be okay. He must have known he couldn’t lie when the evidence was right in front of them. “What about the droid?” he asked quietly.
“He wouldn’t get here in time,” Tech snapped. Omega heard him pause to administer rescue breaths before going back to the compressions.
“C’mon, Sarge,” Wrecker pleaded.
Omega couldn’t look up as her world crumbled to bits. She couldn’t watch the man she loved as a father struggle to keep a hold on life after throwing her to safety. She felt like she was going to faint. Echo was the only thing keeping her upright. “Please,” she whimpered pitifully. “Please, Dad.”
Something shifted. Omega felt it, though she didn’t know how. It was as though a light was dimming. It was like she could feel him dying. “No,” she whispered, trembling all over.
“We’ve lost the pulse!”
Tech’s voice shattered something inside her. “No!” she cried louder.
“What do we do?!” Wrecker shouted, sounding far away.
Omega’s hands fell to the ground. She drew her fingers into fists, gathering up snow in her palms. Some kind of…energy was building in her bones. That was the only way she could process it. It gathered inside of her like a rapidly filling container. It felt like liquid was suddenly filling up a bottle that had always been dry. Then, she burst.
“NO!!”
With her shrieking scream, the energy surged out. She felt it leaving her body. Her brothers cried out. Echo fell back. Ice cracked.
And Hunter coughed.
He hacked, bringing up water. Omega collapsed. Her face fell into the snow. It was like whatever was inside of her had escaped and entered Hunter instead. She’d felt it. His light was a flickering bulb, but it did not go out. She let her body relax as exhaustion took over.
He’s alive, he’s alive… It was her last thought before all went dark.