Protective Brothers

Hello, everyone. This prompt was suggested by SliverJedi17. Enjoy.

The batch was fleeing the EMpire when Echo was hit. He fell to the ground and cried out in pain.

"Echo!" Omega exclaimed as she rushed to Echo's side. "He's bleeding." Omega looked at Echo's wound and tried to stop it.

"Get him back to the ship. I'll lead them away." Hunter stated.

"No. It's too dangerous. You'll get yourself killed." Crosshair protested.

"Look, either I do this, or we all die. Get the others out of here. That's an order, Crosshair."

Hunter ran before Crosshair could say another word. The batch managed to get Echo up to the ship.

"Hunter, we're on the ship." Crosshair stated as he looked out.

"On my way," Hunter replied.

"I see him." Wrecker said as he looked out.

All of a sudden, there was an explosion where HUnter was at.

"NO!" Omega exclaimed. Everyone stood in shock.

"We have to leave," Tech stated.

"No, we have to save him." Omega tried to run to HUnter, but Wrecker grabbed her and pulled her into the ship. Tech took off and Crosshair paced the ship.

"He's gone." Omega gasped.

"What will we do now?" Wrecker wondered.

"We'll figure something out." Echo sighed. Echo looked to Tech who was quiet. "You alright?"

"No," Tech answered. He walked into the cockpit and closed the door.

"He's alive. I know it." Crosshair stated.

"We saw him, Crosshair. He was blown up." Echo sighed.

"NO. I saw him. He's alive. They've probably taken him, prisoner. They're holding him someplace."

That evening, they saw Crosshair on the Navi computer hard at work.

"Crosshair, he's gone." Wrecker stated.

"He's not dead. He's out there. We can find him and save him." Crosshair answered.

Crosshair spent the whole sleep cycle trying to find traces of Hunter. When everyone woke up, they saw that he was still hard at work trying to find his brother.

"What makes you think Hunter is still alive?" Omega wondered.

"That explosion. Hunter was farther away than the explosion." Crosshair replied.

"Then why didn't we see him?"

"He would have still been close enough to be injured, but not killed."

"Have you found anything?"

"I caught a glimpse of the ship I saw. I found its class, but not the ship."

All of a sudden, there was a beep and Crosshair chuckled.

"I found it. The ship is assigned to a nearby base. We can be there in an hour." Crosshair chuckled.

"How do you know he's there?" Tech questioned.

"I know. We can easily sneak in and out."

Crosshair explained his plan and they prepared as they traveled to the planet. When they arrived, they saw that the base was indeed very small and there were very few guards. The batch snuck in and was quickly able to find Hunter's cell.

"Hunter?" Crosshair hissed quietly as Tech tried to open the cell. Hunter laid on the ground unconscious and he was obviously severely injured. When Tech lowered the shield, Crosshair rushed to Hunter's side. "Hunter?"

Tech examined Hunter and looked at the others.

"We'll have to move him gently. His legs are broken and he has wounds on his back, but nothing fatal." Tech stated.

Wrecker started to lift Hunter, but Hunter moaned painfully.

"Careful. He's in enough pain as it is." Crosshair sneered. Wrecker gently lifted Hunter off the ground and the batch made their way out of the base without injuries.

When they got back to the ship, Wrecker laid Hunter down and Tech started tending to his wounds. Crosshair hovered nearby, watching Hunter carefully. Every movement had Crosshair on edge. When they arrived home, they took Hunter to the nearest hospital and he was taken to a bacta tank. Everyone sat in the waiting room while Crosshair paced the room.

"He'll be ok," Omega said as she looked at Crosshair.

"This time." Crosshair sighed.

A few hours later, they were able to see Hunter but were warned that Hunter would be very confused and weak. When they walked in, Hunter was sleeping. Crosshair sat by Hunter's side and refused to leave.

When Hunter woke up, he looked around in confusion.

"What?" Hunter murmured.

"You're safe, Hunter. Just rest." Crosshair replied.

"Safe?"

"Everyone's safe. Get some sleep."

Hunter groaned and fought, but eventually gave in and went back to sleep. The next time he woke, he was much better. Crosshair sat by his side waiting for him to wake.

"What happened?" Hunter asked.

"There was an explosion. You were hit. The Empire took you captive, but we were able to rescue you. You'll be out of here soon, but you have to take it easy." Crosshair replied.

"We have missions to complete. People are counting on us."

"They can wait. You need to recover properly."

"I'll be fine."

Crosshair wanted to say more but didn't.

When Hunter was allowed to come home, Crosshair made sure that Hunter took care of himself and that the batch took care of themselves as well.

"DO we have all that we need for tomorrow?" Hunter asked.

"We have all the supplies we will need and all the info for our mission," Tech replied.

"Are you sure you're up to it?" Echo wondered.

"I'll be fine," Hunter replied.

"Huh, liar. The doc says you need to watch it for another 3 weeks and here you are planning a dangerous mission for tomorrow. We'll fail." Crosshair sneered.

"People are counting on us to take down that communication tower."

"They can wait another few weeks or have someone else do it. You and Echo are not fully recovered. I don't give a… I don't care if you two think you're fully recovered. You're not. Echo gets breathless walking up the stairs and your legs give out after being on your feet for 10 minutes. Both of you'd slow us down and get us all killed and we can't do the mission without you. For the past few years, we've rushed into battles and missions without thinking or caring about our health. How many times are we going to fail in order for us to see that we need to slow down? We may be superior, but we're not machines. We're not invincible. It won't kill us to slow down."

The batch looked at each other and sighed knowing that Crosshair was right. They did slow down. They took their time and didn't rush to recover when they were sick or injured or even just worn out. They remembered to take care of themselves and each other making sure that everyone was fully able to do their jobs properly.

THE END