Ok, which one of you fuckers manifested this chapter? Who did a ritual?
Because as of 12 PM today this was a blank sheet. Now it's a 2100+ chapter. I did more in six hours than I did in three weeks.
WHO MANIFESTED THIS?
And could you please do it again? Plz? It was like having the zoomies, but for writing.
Granted it's not as descriptive as normal, but I'm saving that for important important chapters.
Also, fun fact! Halfway through I failed my weather class quiz for the third week in a row! :D So I added in a huggy segment with Wrecker because yay method writing.
Anyways, Enjoy!
Content Warning:
Depression and talk of castration
Never.
Never before had he seen Shadow like that. To just stand over Crosshair as he drowned…
Yet he'd seen her dive in after him, disappearing over the large boulder with a splash. Then there was yelling, harsh words from Crosshair, and by the time he had made it to the top of the row of boulders the sniper was back in the pool.
Hunter watched Shadow vanish upstream, conflicted as anger at her yet concern for her rippled through him. She'd deliberately put Crosshair, Hunter's brother, back in danger. But the ice in her words didn't fool him, and he could tell she was deeply hurt by what Crosshair had said to her.
"I don't need you and I never will."
Trevor's warning made sense now. Hunter figured that was a sore spot to her, but for a reaction this bad…
Damn it all to the Nine Corellian Hells! How was he supposed to keep them on friendly terms with each other when Crosshair and Shadow wouldn't stop pushing each other's buttons?
"Wrecker, carry him upstream on the bank," Hunter ordered, dragging Crosshair out of the pool.
"I can walk," Crosshair spat.
"Don't care. He's carrying you before we have another accident," Hunter said firmly, heading up after Shadow.
"Goin' to check on Squeak?" Wrecker asked, picking Crosshair up despite his protests.
"Yeah. Meet you on the other side." But when he reached the place Shadow left her pack, he found only an oddly subdued Tech who Hunter swore looked a little red under his helmet. "Where's Shadow?"
"Went across. I tried to ask her what was wrong but she snapped at me!" Tech exclaimed.
Hunter glanced at the nearby tree with shattered bark roughly Tech's head level. "I see that."
"What'd Crosshair do to her? She's… she's never displayed such aggression towards me. I swore I saw tears in her eyes."
A sharp stab in his chest made Hunter wince. "I'll go talk with her."
"Not a sound idea, I'm afraid. She's very hostile. Would it be best to leave her alone?" Tech asked. "Sometimes people just need time to work through emotions. Shadow surely knows Crosshair was just embarrassed she had to save him."
She's already been damaged and has left over issues from previous incidents, Hunter wanted to say but knew he risked Tech going into detail about the healing process of the brain or he would ask for more details. Hunter felt… dirty betraying her like that. Tech wouldn't understand, he'd ask her about it and use it as a chance to learn more when this was an issue that shouldn't be poked. The brainiac didn't mean any harm by it, but he just… he didn't understand how sensitive of an issue it was for Shadow.
"Maybe. I'm still going to talk to her regardless," Hunter stated, crossing the creek as Tech followed behind him.
"Er… Sarge?" Wrecker said. "Shadow's… gone."
"Gone? What do you mean gone?" Hunter exclaimed.
"She's not around, at least that I can see. Can't find her heat signature."
If this woman can mask her heat signature... A new thought sprang into Hunter's mind. "Are you looking for a humanoid, or an animal?"
"Humanoid. But didn't see anything as big as her cat form," Wrecker said with a shake of his head.
"What about that smaller feline in the barn last night? If she could turn into a variant of the big cat…" Tech turned to Hunter. "Then certainly she could shift into a small cat!"
Hunter switched to infrared and scanned the upper levels of the trees. Still nothing.
Wait…
"Rest here, I have an idea of where she could be," Hunter ordered, starting through the trees.
"Wait, I wanna go too! Make sure she's ok!" Wrecker protested, setting Crosshair down.
Hunter shook his head. "Wrecker, no. If there's more than one, she may get defensive again."
"She was already displaying signs of such behavior," Tech countered.
"Then more people would make it worse."
"I won't antagonize her, Sarge. I want to make sure she's ok," Wrecker urged.
Hunter paused. Wrecker was Shadow's favorite. More so than Hunter himself, especially after Hunter yelled at her. She may be more willing to talk to him over Hunter. But there was the issue of Wrecker's clumsy social skills. He'd say the wrong thing or crack a joke at the wrong time.
If it were Hunter alone, he could maintain control of the situation better. That was his specialty, after all.
But perhaps… attempting control wasn't a good route to take with Shadow. As she'd put it, he was not her superior. He felt oddly upset at that for reasons he didn't care to look at closer. The point was… maybe allowing Wrecker along would be helpful.
He relented. "Fine, but hang back until I find her. That clear?"
"Crystal clear, Sarge!" Wrecker said, face lighting up as he ran to Hunter's side.
"I'll check Crosshair over while you're gone," Tech said, taking off his helmet and sitting beside Crosshair, who growled and slapped away his hands.
"Get off me, Four Eyes."
"So Sarge," Wrecker said as they left and headed into the woods. "Where are we gonna look for Shadow?"
"In the warmest patch of sun you can find."
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Space blankets were a blessed thing. Keep the heat in and wind off.
In ordinary circumstances, I could shift into that oversized puffball that was the Mountaineer kelusine. But now? The last thing I wanted was to stand out like a sore thumb so the Bad Batch could find me.
They would eventually of course, given Hunter was part shark and they literally had a zero percent failrate, but even a little peace and quiet was nice.
How I wished I was back on the ship. Back with those idiots. Could really do with a hug from Neil right now or Hobbs' teasing. I still recalled that one night I'd stumbled into one of their card games and they just let me chill until I felt better. I could still feel the weight of Neil's arm across my shoulders.
I tugged the space blanket tighter around me.
Get it together, you're pathetic.
A low growl escaped my throat. Beating myself up literally wasn't going to help anybody, least of all me. Of course I missed the sailors, they'd basically ended up like murderous big brothers to me. Most of them at least.
Kenny and Anthony deserved every single cut and castration they underwent. Had Anthony to thank for this damn bullet hole in my chest. Fucking assholes, both of them.
But the others…
I pulled out my phone and swiped through my photos. Sure enough, there they were. Somehow. All the photos I'd taken of the Karaboudjan. Mostly references of the ship herself for building the Caroline, but a good few were of the men. Card games, photos taken when one of them had yoinked my photo, photos taken when Trevor had yoinked my phone… why were there so many photos when my photo had been taken, damn?
While swiping, I lingered on a photo of me with Tom and Allan. Allan looked grumpy as usual, but in this instance I really couldn't blame him considering my legs were crossed over his lap as I grinned at him. My back rested against Tom, who was biting his fist to withhold a laugh as his other arm lay draped around my shoulders.
Man… why couldn't I be back with at least these two?
My ear twisted backwards at two sets of approaching footsteps.
One near silent and one nowhere near silent.
Had to be Hunter and Wrecker. Hunter was good at the silent tread and Wrecker… well he wasn't.
Anger simmered through me at the thought of Hunter yelling at me again for sparta-kicking Crosshair into the creek. Long limbed bastard deserved that I was not sorry for what I did.
The footsteps got closer.
Damn bloodhound was probably tracking me.
Could he not? I really wasn't in the mood for a lecture.
"Squeak? Shadow?"
I kept my eyes on my phone as Wrecker's voice sounded from the other side of the boulder.
"Wrecker, I said stay back," Hunter groaned.
"I wanna make sure she's ok, Sarge!"
Oh Wrecker…
Some of my anger faded. I took a deep breath and said, "Here, Wrecker."
Leaves rapidly crunched under his heavy boots as Wrecker dashed around the rock. "Shadow! Are you alright?"
"No," I mumbled, swiping through some more pictures.
The thunk of heavy armor accompanied Wrecker as he sat beside me and pulled off his helmet. Leaning closer, his armored shoulder brushing mine as he peered at my phone, he asked, "That the sailors?"
My still wet tail twitched, but I nodded as I swiped again and was greeted with a picture of me with basically the entire crew. They may have been fictional. May have been smugglers. May have been villains. But when given the option to have a group picture…
Most of them at least. Never figured how I managed almost the entire crew in this shot. But it was perhaps the only picture I had where Allan didn't look like someone had stolen the meat from his sandwich.
"Who's who?"
I sighed. "Wrecker, you really don't have to fake interest to try and cheer me up."
"It's… I'm not fakin' it, Shad," Wrecker protested, sounding hurt. "I care, ya know?"
"So I heard," I mumbled.
"That… ain't why," he said softly. He hesitantly rested a large hand on my shoulder. "You're my friend."
"Didn't you hear Crosshair? No one needs me around. You'll get over it."
Heavy arms wrapped around me and pulled me into Wrecker's side. "Not true, Shadow. At all. Crosshair was wrong."
While I didn't hug back, I didn't push him off. I didn't want to. Allowing myself to lean slightly into him, I grumbled, "He's your brother, you're on his side."
"I can recognize he's an asshole," Wrecker said. He paused then continued, "Can I keep huggin' ya?"
"Ain't no complaints," I sighed.
Wrecker pulled me closer to him. "I'd love to hear about 'em," he insisted. "The sailors."
"I'd be interested as well," Hunter said, kneeling on my other side and slipping off his helmet.
"Gonna yell at me again, Sarge?" I growled, ears flicking back. "Guess I can't blame you. Defendin' your family and all." I turned my gaze back down to the phone as I scanned each member. "Can fight and insult your own all day long, but it's a different kettle of fish when others do it."
"You considered 'em family?"
"That or bothersome roommates I was quarantined with for two weeks," I retorted dryly.
"Still remember each of their names?" Hunter asked, a small smile on his face as he sat beside me.
"Bet." I pointed each man out to the pair of commados, listing all twenty men in the image.
"And you were close with all of 'em?" Wrecker asked.
"Not all. Some I was closer with than others," I replied, eyeing the men in the middle. "My main group consisted of Tom, Neil, Hobbs, Ernie, Gietch, and Eckhart. Sometimes Allan, although he was grumpy as hell."
"Allan looks grouchy," Wrecker commented.
I gave a short dry laugh. "That's his happy face."
"You miss 'em, don't you?" Hunter asked softly.
"Course I do."
"What's the first image you have of 'em?" Wrecker asked.
I swiped back through until I got to the first picture I took, then tried not to acknowledge how close Hunter was as he leaned over my shoulder to get a better look at the image.
His hair smells nice.
Cease.
"Shadow… are you robbing a house?"
The disbelief in Hunter's tone caused me to give a wheezing laugh. "Yep, Sarge. Well, not me. Tom and Al were ransackin' the place, I was just there for moral support." I nudged Wrecker. "Thanks for yours, by the way, Scruffy."
Wrecker smiled warmly at me. "Of course, Squeak. I just… thought you hated hugs?"
I sighed. "No, Wreck. I love hugs. And cuddlin'. Problem is, got a sensory disorder that can cause touch to overwhelm my senses. Registers almost like pain and can make me violent as my brain says get away by any means necessary."
"Huh, you too?" Hunter asked, having somewhat recovered from the shock of seeing me aid in robbery and theft.
"Sensory disorder besties," I snorted, pointing a finger gun at him.
He rolled his eyes and slowly stood up. "Do you want to stay here for a bit? The others are resting back at the bank."
He didn't mention Crosshair's name, a fact I was grateful for. I nodded. "Yeah. Thanks to a certain sniper, got kicked into a bit of a depressive state so I'm down for a bit."
"Understood. Come back when you're ready. And… sorry about him."
I shook my head. "Don't apologize for him, Hunter. You know it doesn't count."
"Not apologizing for him," Hunter replied softly.
I held his gaze for many moments before twitching an ear. "Thanks, Hunter."
"Sure thing, Shadow. See you back in a few."
"See ya," I replied, watching him go before leaning back against Wrecker. "Hey, Scruffy, wanna see some more photos?"
"You know it, Squeak."
Big thanks to Abi-Chan Fanfiction fan for your reviews! I literally look forward to them every time I post, I get so excited to see what you think! 3