Chapter Text
Sajaun is only gone three days before Wrecker has his first vision.
He dreamed of a barren planet with a no-nothing town and a crappy diner. He didn't recognize the planet but recognized the vibe: a wasteland planet with nothing to give.
Movement made Wrecker turn, and there stood a clone dressed like a civilian staring out at the deserted land.
“I haven't seen you here before. Are you passing through?” The reg asked, looking over at Wrecker.
Wrecker frowned, “No, I'm with my brothers. Why aren't you?”
The reg frowned, looking oh so wrong with his soft clothing and scraggly beard—like something was missing. “What do you mean? I have no brothers.”
All at once, the image of the reg glitches. Instead of the mild-mannered man, it was a commando clone in blood-covered armor with a head wound and vacant eyes. It flashes back to the civilian-dressed reg, and Wrecker's gaze falls on the silvery scar in the man's hairline. A brain injury. He doesn't remember, Wrecker realizes.
“Why are you here?” Wrecker asks instead.
“I've always been here.” The reg shrugged before giving Wrecker a mischievous look, “But I won't be for long, will I?”
Wrecker blinks again, and suddenly, he can see the Commando crouched alone in this field. Lasers fly around him, and he steels himself for battle. And then the image is gone.
The commando grinned at Wrecker, “I'll see you soon vod.”
And then Wrecker blinked awake.
At first, he didn't even realize it. The vision was like a hazy dream, but the Commando's face stayed with him. Finally, Wrecker couldn't resist.
“Tech.” Wrecker asked as they cleaned up dinner, “Where have the Republic Commandos been stationed the last six months?”
Tech looked up from where he was decrypting a Kamino-based encryption system, “Why?”
Wrecker frowned, “I think I had a vision of a Commando, and I was hoping we could narrow it down.”
“What was the vision?” Hunter asked where he was drying the dishes as Cross was washing them.
“I saw this clone dressed like a scraggly civilian with a beard, and it seemed like he'd lost his memory of being a soldier. And then I saw him with his commando armor and then I saw him fighting all these droids alone. And he said he knew we were coming to get him.” Wrecker tried to explain.
“You sure it was a vision?” Cross asked from the sink, “could be how busy we've been.”
“It's impossible for the human brain to recall images we've never seen in dreams.” Tech shot that down, “Unless there's another reason for it, like hybrid or Force Sensitivity.”
“Hate to break it to you, Tech, but the commandos are clones too.” Hunter said dryly, “We all have the same face.”
“There have been twenty Commando missions in the last six months.” Tech continued ignoring Hunter.
“How many had fatalities or MIA vod?” Wrecker asked, trying to narrow it down.
“Eight. Only two had MIA reports.” Tech narrowed it down.
“Can I see the geography of the planets?” Wrecker asked.
“Here.” Tech handed him the datapad with the images.
“Neither.” Wrecker frowned, “How do you pull up the surrounding system planets?”
“Here.” Tech reached over and poked a button on the datapad.
A plethora of planets appeared. Wrecker swiped through them carefully, hoping to recognize the barren white rock of the planet immediately. And sure enough- “Here!” He held up the datapad with the barren white landscape on it.
“Abafar.” Tech read off it, taking the datapad, “Outer Rim, wastelands, Rhydonium mines. And deep in Separatist territory.”
“You sure?” Hunter asked, glancing over.
“Absolutely, there's a brother waiting for us there, whether he knows it or not. Even a commando will have a hard time getting out of the backwater without aid. I think- I think I'm supposed to go get him.” Wrecker said, trying to put the feeling into words.
“We'll have to split up then,” Tech murmured, looking over the datapad.
“Wait, why?” Cross looked over sharply.
“Dex is coming by with the encryption key, and I need to meet him. Master Kenobi wishes to meet to discuss his most recent encounter with Maul, which Hunter knows the most about.” Tech explained simply, “To go into Separatist territory, you need all the help you can get, so just Wrecker wouldn't be wise.”
“Okay, so Cross and Wreck will go to Abafar and Tech, and I will handle things here.” Hunter nodded, setting down the last dish.
“I don't know.” Cross said tightly, “I'm not comfortable splitting up. We're a batch.”
“But we're not just a Batch anymore.” Hunter said softly, looking around at them, “We're more. And our duty calls us to do more, which unfortunately means we need to split up sometimes. That doesn't change the fact we are vode. That we protect each other. No matter what.”
Wrecker hadn't realized until now that there would be a change they'd need to split up. To not go as a unit as they always had. It was daunting and a little bit frightening that idea but Hunter was right, they had changed this was who they were now.
“Okay.” Wrecker nodded, “We'll still have each other, just different.”
“Exactly.” Hunter nodded. "Now, how exactly do you plan to get this impossible-to-reach brother?”