Lance turned it over in his mind, and the more he sat with it, the more it made sense.
The Clone Wars had ended.
A different war had just begun.
First, I need to know I can actually trust them.
Clone troopers had once been the people he trusted most on any battlefield.
Companions he’d have turned his back on without a second thought, partners who’d bled beside him more times than he could count.
Then they’d turned on that trust entirely.
Since that night at the Temple, whatever warmth he’d felt toward troopers had curdled into something closer to hostility.
He knew, logically, that the chip was to blame.
He’d felt nothing but goodwill radiating off every member of the Bad Batch since meeting them.
None of that fully dislodged the thorn still lodged somewhere in his chest.
Cut and Suu returned as the last light of sunset touched the ground, R4 riding along with them.
The droid fired a burst from its thrusters, dropped off the speeder, and landed steady on its feet.
It rolled over to Lance, popped its chassis open, and handed over the disk and encoder.
Beep beep!
Lance patted its head.
“Good work, R4.”
The praise sent it spinning happily in place, letting out a string of pleased chirps.
He ignored the display for the moment and turned the disk over in his hand.
Silvery white, roughly the size of a sabacc card, maybe fifty millimeters thick.
Three hollow circles sat along the top, two white and one red, and below them a white bordered rectangle holding a solid red block and a hollow square.
“This is the chain code?”
He studied it a moment longer, then handed both pieces to Tech.
Tech took them with thanks, slotted a blank disk into the encoder, and got to work.
“This encryption shouldn’t give us any trouble.”
A moment later, a full set of forged credentials had been written to the disk.
“Done.”
He handed it to Cut, a hint of amusement in his voice.
“Congratulations.
You’re officially a Saleucami farmer.”
Cut examined it, a genuine smile breaking across his face.
“Not bad at all.”
A free man, as of that moment.
No more constant fear humming underneath everything he did.
Something in his chest finally let go of a weight he’d carried for years.
Tech kept working, and the remaining four disks came together quickly.
Not everyone reacted the same way.
Omega took hers, and her face went pale almost instantly, eyes reddening fast.
Her hand trembled around the disk, voice cracking.
“Did… Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
did I do something wrong?”
Hunter crouched down to her level and rested a hand gently on her shoulder.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
His expression sobered.
“You deserve a real home, kid.
Cut and Suu, they’re good people.
They can give you a normal life.”
Omega’s head dropped, tears welling.
“That’s not what I want.”
She looked back up, stubbornness burning through the tears.
“The time I’ve had with all of you has been the happiest I’ve ever been.”
Something complicated twisted through Hunter’s chest, reluctance and heartache tangled up with a quiet flicker of something warmer underneath.
Funny how that worked.
Some people spent a lifetime side by side and stayed strangers the whole way through.
Others needed only a handful of days to become impossible to let go of.
Which was exactly why he wanted better for her than this.
“I just want you to grow up happy.
Safe.
Not spending your whole life running and hiding with the rest of us.”
Omega scrubbed the tears off her face, voice firm.
“I only want to stay with you.”
Hunter’s tone sharpened without meaning to.
“Omega.
Do you understand what that actually means?”
She didn’t hesitate.
“I do.
And I won’t regret it.”
He held her gaze a long moment, something in him finally giving way with a quiet sigh.
“If that’s really your choice.
Then, welcome aboard.”
Omega froze, like the words hadn’t fully landed yet.
“Really?
You mean it?”
Hunter just nodded, nothing more needed.
She wiped her face clean, something bright returning to her eyes, a smile she couldn’t quite hold back spreading across her face.
“I won’t slow you down.
I promise.”
A heavy hand landed on her shoulder, Wrecker’s booming voice following right behind it. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
“Omega.
Welcome to the Bad Batch!”
Tech and Echo added their own welcome right after, clearly fond of her already.
The whole room settled into something warm and celebratory, enough that even Grogu picked up on it, cooing happily along with everyone else.
Lance sat off to one side, letting his sense of the Force run quietly underneath it all.
Every emotion in the room came back reading true.
A squad worth trusting, then.
With chain codes in hand, Cut and Suu loaded their bags onto the speeder one by one, planning to catch the last transport off Saleucami that day.
Omega wrapped Jek and Shaeeah in a long hug, reluctant to let go.
Cut and Suu walked over to Lance and the squad, gratitude plain in their voices.
“Thank you.
For everything.”
“Take care of yourself, old friend,” Hunter said, patting Cut’s shoulder, something wistful bleeding into his tone.
Lance just gave a small nod, not saying much.
After a short, simple goodbye, the group stood together in the yard, watching the speeder shrink into the distance until it disappeared entirely.
Nearly half an hour later, a message came through from Cut: they’d made it aboard the ship safely.
Only then did everyone finally let out a real breath of relief.
Lance and the Bad Batch started preparing to move as well.
He shed his Jedi robes and pulled on a simple tan set of civilian clothes instead, checking himself in the mirror once he’d changed.
Handsome enough face, bright eyes.
A year on the battlefield had tanned his skin into a healthy wheat tone that fit the look of a farmer well enough.
If anything gave him away, it’d be the calluses on his palms, not quite thick enough yet for the part.
That, and the Padawan braid still hanging behind his ear.
Far too recognizable to keep.
He reached up and pinched it between two fingers, hesitation flickering through him for a moment.
Then he picked up a small knife and cut it away cleanly.
Holding onto it now would only put a target on his back.
Whatever meaning it once carried had already run its course.
Right then, something shifted uneasily through the Force.
Deep in the forest, a pitch black Imperial probe droid drifted through the trees, its repulsor engine humming low, its mechanical eye sweeping the terrain for anything out of place.
It stopped above a ravine.
Below lay the remains of a beast, bite marks scattered across its body, already beginning to rot.
Several charred wounds caught its attention immediately.
A scanning beam swept the corpse, and the analysis came back fast: caused by a high-energy plasma blade.
Its comm module activated instantly.
“Jedi presence confirmed.”
Moments later, Saleucami’s administrative centre issued a classified directive: full planetary lockdown, effective immediately.
Clone troopers moved on the order without delay.
Elsewhere, a cruiser patrolling the neighbouring system received a support request, coordinates locking in as its hyperdrive spun up.