Chapter 9 - Hunter

Author's Note: Plot twist. Heh heh. 😈

~ Rivana Rita


He looks up at the sound of blaster fire. Wrecker is shooting at the others now, and they're taking cover. He – he should be. They are traitors. But Hunter had been loyal, too, and he didn't try to kill them. He kept telling them to stand down.

Crosshair looks at Tech's motionless form right next to him and slowly disentangles them. Wrecker was strangling him. He could have broken his neck. Crosshair feels entirely numb about that. He doesn't know why – he should. But Tech is a traitor, too.

He wants to... hurt them. But he doesn't want to kill them, even if they are traitors, even if they did... betray everything. Hunter – Hunter would know what to do. Hunter, who was loyal when they weren't.

Crosshair pushes himself upright, swaying slightly on his feet, and steps into the hall.

"Wrecker," he calls, and his brother stops in the middle of the hall, whirling around with a snarl. "Stand down."

"You're all traitors," Wrecker snarls, firing at him.

Crosshair ducks back against the wall.

"Hunter's last orders were to detain, not terminate."

Wrecker pauses, hovering. He knows just as well that those were Hunter's last standing orders, and that no one has given them anything to contradict that.

It's Hunter they follow first and foremost.

Wrecker steps forward, anyway. He's refusing to be deterred. Hunter himself is probably the only one who could make him stop.

Crosshair can't remember the last time he's felt so... angry. He has always had a bit of a temper compared to his brothers, but that's not what this is. Wrecker is blatantly disobeying orders, too. Wrecker is – he's trying to kill him. Them. It's wrong. He shouldn't be. Them.

Pain lances through his head again.

"All clones in violation of Order 66 shall be terminated," Wrecker growls, raising his blaster. Crosshair starts reaching for his own. A distant part of his mind knows this should hurt, but it doesn't. He's just angry.

A shot rings out, and Wrecker's body drops to the ground. At the end of the hall, Rex doesn't lower his blaster. Neither does Echo.

His head is still throbbing, but mostly, he just feels numb. Angry. Cold. Not – not himself.

(That's what Rex was talking about, he realizes numbly. This.)

Brothers or no, they are traitors. They betrayed the Republic, the now Empire. The penalty for treason is termination but Hunter had...

"Crosshair," Echo says, cautiously, slowly.

Good soldiers follow orders, his mind whispers again. "You're traitors," he accuses, hand drifting towards his blaster. They're traitors, and they have to be stopped. (Don't hurt them, a quiet, distant voice in his mind whispers. It sounds like... himself.)

Rex is looking at him, with much the same expression Hunter used to have when he's assessing something. The same calm, calculated look as he plans his next move.

He's expecting Rex to fire at him.

He doesn't.

Instead, it's Echo who suddenly whips out his blaster, hitting Crosshair square in the chest with a stun bolt. And finally, mercifully, everything blacks out.

**w**

Tech is hovering over him when he finally awakens.

It takes a few moments for his memories to flood in, and when they do, an icy sense of horror hits him full force. He – he lost control of himself. Again. Wrecker did, too. And Tech –

Crosshair pushes himself upright. "Wrecker?" he asks, just to make sure.

His brother stands from where he was sitting on the floor. Omega is already standing by the medtable, pressing as close to him as she can. "Are you okay?" she asks.

No. Wrecker just nearly killed Tech, and Crosshair wasn't too far behind doing the same thing. Wrecker was about to kill him, too.

Right now, he just feels sick.

"He will be fine," Tech assures her.

"Two down, and two more to go," Rex says, "Who's next?"

"I will go last," Tech replies, stepping back.

Crosshair stands, moving away to give them room to continue. He never really understood what happened to Hunter until right now. He couldn't stop it. But his didn't... react like Wrecker was. There was a moment Crosshair was certain that the last thing he would see was his brother's face as he shot him. And Crosshair hadn't even cared at the time – he had been too focused on the fact that they... were traitors.

Somehow, Wrecker's strange quietness makes sense.

Crosshair isn't the only one who was shaken up by it.

Omega sits down next to him. She still looks worried. He should say something to her, but he doesn't know what he could say.

"I know you couldn't stop it," she says finally.

"How much of it was us?" he asks finally. He felt like himself when it was happening. He also... didn't. He could somewhat evade the orders, but not directly. Wrecker, it seems, couldn't at all.

Omega reaches over to take his hand. He returns it, almost automatically – it's hard to deny her anything. "None of it," she promises.

"Then, why wasn't I trying to kill you?"

"Hunter didn't immediately, either," Tech reminds, approaching them. He must've overheard their conversation and decided it was important enough to intervene. And Tech, Crosshair knows, will know what he's talking about. It's not that he doesn't trust Omega. It's just that... she's young. She's a child. And she's naΓ―ve. Of course, she would never want to believe they are doing... any of this of their own free will.

He wouldn't either, if not for the implications of it.

What he suspects she doesn't realize, because she never had to deal with it herself, is what it means for them to know that they've been... controlled. That their actions are not their own. It's... hard. It raises so many questions. How can he know if any of what he's done was his own doing?

How does he know who he is anymore?

"Our inhibitor chips were implanted before our mutations became clear. Therefore, our deviant nature was not integrated in their design. Yours was not active at full capacity."

"And... Wrecker's?"

"I suspect his violent reaction is directly connected to his complete lack of impulse control," Tech replies.

Crosshair glances at him. Silently, he has to concede the point, because really, Wrecker has absolutely no impulse control. He does some of the stupidest things sometimes, though now that Omega's here and he has someone who is tiny and actually breakable to care for, he's become the slightest bit less rough.

When they were climbing up here, Crosshair didn't miss how Wrecker kept pausing to carry her or help her over obstacles she was too small to climb over herself.

"That would explain things," Crosshair says anyway, dryly. Because it does somewhat make sense now. He'd been overwhelmed by the need to hurt and – and stop them, but he didn't blindly give into it like Wrecker clearly did.

Wrecker couldn't stop it. He – he actually was about to hurt them. Crosshair... wanted to, but he didn't actually do it. He can't imagine how Wrecker must be feeling now.

The guilt burning inside himself is... smothering. And he already understands that he couldn't have... helped feeling like that.

Tech turns back to Echo, and Crosshair just watches them.

The surgery takes a little while, and somewhere during it, Wrecker comes to sit beside them. "Hey," he says quietly.

"What?" Crosshair asks, finally tearing his gaze off the medical equipment.

"About what happened earlier," Wrecker begins, awkwardly, "I tried to control it."

He huffs quietly. "I know," Crosshair tells him, because he does – he knows Wrecker the best of all his siblings in some ways. Wrecker is very, very easy to read. He's... guileless. Childish. He can't process or understand half of what the galaxy is capable of. (None of them really do. He didn't realize that until he met Echo and saw what he lived through during the war.) "Leave it."

"Okay," Wrecker agrees. There's something defeated about him, too. Maybe they're both more messed up than he realized. This... won't be easy for either of them. For any of them. But they'll make it through.

After a few moments, Crosshair leans closer, dropping his head onto Wrecker's shoulder. His brother wraps an arm around his waist, tugging him closer, and they just let themselves... be.

**w**

He knew it would only be a matter of time before his brothers – the traitors – were found. They left him and the Empire. They betrayed him. (He just wants them back.)

Admiral Rampart is talking to Lama Su when Hunter enters, the door hissing shut behind him.

"A power surge in a Jedi cruiser on Bracca was reported," Hunter tells him.

"Send a scout team," the admiral replies.

"It's Clone Force 99," Hunter replies shortly. (It's – his brothers. Why weren't they more careful? They should have gone. Hide. Gone and never looked back.) He knows them. He should go there to – finish this. They were his squad. His responsibility. He should have taken care of them before. Good soldiers follow orders. (A good leader protects his squad. Hunter... didn't. But now here he is, fighting them, trying to lead a group of people he doesn't even know, and it's so wrong. He loathes this. He misses his brothers. He doesn't want to... report this, but it's already out. He can't – not act on it.) "There was a confirmed sighting of all of them. Even –" (Omega. The kid.) "– the kid they're traveling with."

"Admiral Rampart, the clones of experimental unit 99 are highly skilled assets," Lama Su interjects, "It would be most beneficial to have them returned alive."

"I have no interest in a group of rogue clone deserters," the Admiral replies, turning back to Hunter. "If you find them on Bracca, terminate them."

It feels like he should say something to that. Pain lances through his head. Good soldiers follow orders. "Yes, sir," Hunter answers robotically, turning and walking out. The door hisses shut behind him again. The feeling of wrongness burning inside him is almost too strong to ignore.

(He misses them. He misses their loyalty, the home they had. Echo's passionate loyalty, Tech's constant chatter, Wrecker's chaos, and Crosshair's sharpness. If they were together, everything would make sense. He wouldn't feel so lost and empty.)

Orders are... orders. They're traitors. They betrayed... him. They have to be dealt with.

(He can't do this. He can't hurt them. It's his duty first and foremost to protect them. He would have done anything to keep them safe. He still – will. Would. If he could. If he could make the voice in his head stop.)

("It's not your fault," Omega had said. "You can't help it.")

(And he – yeah. He gets it now, maybe. He keeps trying to make it stop but he... can't.)

**w**

Omega stays with Wrecker and Crosshair until Echo calls her over to help supervise Tech's surgery. Everything is going smoothly, but she can't shake the slightly unsettled feeling gnawing at her.

Maybe it's just from what happened earlier. She'll never be able to stop seeing Wrecker strangling Tech.

Omega knew exactly what was happening when it happened. She'd always known that it wasn't his fault, that it was something that her brothers couldn't control. It's new for them, though. Crosshair dodged the topic altogether, but it's obvious that he... isn't angry about it. Just shaken up.

She doesn't think any of them are capable of staying angry at each other.

The sun is rising when Wrecker finally takes her outside to start teaching her more about some of the explosives they've found on the ship, and Omega can't help finding it relieving. Rex told them he'd have to leave soon, but he's sticking close for as long as he can.

She was going to try going for a second round after miserably failing her first when something catches her attention. There's the distant rumbling of... a ship.

Wrecker looks up, grabbing his helmet and pulling it on. Three ships of some kind are flying overhead – she sees the shadows on the ground almost before the ships in the now light blue sky. "Oh boy. Better get back inside, kid."

Omega shuffles back, eyes wide as she realizes the shuttles are approaching the ground. They're not just passing over; they're landing. Uh oh. "Echo?" she calls into her comm, "Tech? Crosshair?"

"We copy," Echo replies, "We're inside with Rex. What's wrong?"

"We got company," Wrecker replies, "And it's the Empire."

There's a heartbeat of silence. "Get inside. Now," Echo orders sharply, "Stay out of sight. Make it fast. We have to get out of here. Come to the armory."

"Copy that," Omega replies immediately – more for the sake of getting to use her comm, because she still finds it cool – and they sprint inside.

It doesn't take them long to get back inside. The armory is, apparently, still loaded with weapons, so they take as much as they can carry without being slowed down.

They don't have much they can carry anything with but considering the circumstances, something is better than none.

"They'll do a forward-to-aft sweep," Echo says, "We'll have to alternate corridors."

"Tech," Rex asks, turning back to him, "Can you get into their comms?"

"Already working on it," Tech replies, tapping on his datapad.

Rex moves to the front, and Omega just sticks by Wrecker as they move down the halls.

Something about trying to evade the Empire is... scarier than the other missions they've been on.

"That is unusual," Tech says, looking up, "The comms are completely silence."

Rex sighs. "We'll go to the auxiliary deck," he says, "That's the less expected place for you, isn't it?"

"Well," Tech replies, "Yes."

"Then let's go," Rex says, starting to move forward, but pauses when Crosshair starts talking.

"Running instead of fighting?" Crosshair asks. There's a certain... darkness in his voice. He's angry, though she's not quite sure why.

"We can't overwhelm their forces," Echo replies.

"There were three ships," Omega interjects quietly.

"They're being controlled," Rex reminds, "But Echo is right that their numbers are too great to help all at once. And it's not fair to hurt them."

They stand from where they were crouched in the hall and keep moving.

Somehow, Omega knows something is wrong even before they enter the auxiliary deck, but she doesn't have time to voice it before the doors open and they step inside – only to come face to face with a group of clones, blasters aimed at them.

**w**

Hunter knows them. He knows his squad in and out, and he knows exactly where they're going. He knows their moves, even if Rex is here to make it slightly more... complicated. Even if it's slightly harder for him to read or predict their moves now, because they're working with a reg.

Rex was thought dead. Apparently, that's not true.

The clones are searching the ship. Hunter circles around to cut the traitors off from the back. It's not hard to catch their scent, seeing as they've been here for a while. And they're all still here, just like they were in the hologram he saw.

He could recognize them anywhere. Echo is slightly sharp and warm, mingled with the constant smell of the machinery that keeps him alive. Tech is... less distinct but is laced with the machinery that he's always working with. Wrecker's is... hot and smoky like the explosions he's always making, and Crosshair is a misty fog tinted with smoke.

He even can make out Rex's, though his is less distinct, and something soft that must be... Omega.

He feels the traces of their heartbeats on the walls. Hunter can't help pausing in one of the halls they must've been for a while – there's a certain strength to their heartrates here. They must have nearly been found.

Something twists slightly inside him. Hunter lets it go just as fast. They – should be afraid. They're traitors. (They're his brothers. His family. They're part of him. The only thing that matters. Just – go. Somewhere you'll be safe. I don't want to hurt you.)

**w**

Crosshair instantly raises his rifle. The others have theirs out, too, and Omega has her bow out. This was a trap, and somehow, they were outsmarted.

The door opens again, and more Imperials enter. He's not afraid, though, even if he should be. He's just angry. Angry that the Empire took so much from them.

"You should have stayed away."

For a moment, it feels like he can't breathe. This – it's Hunter. Hunter's the one leading this. He's here. That's how he was able to find them.

He's dressed the same as he was in the hangar on Kamino when they fought a few weeks ago. It could have been far longer than that. Times that Hunter was one of them, their leader, their brother already feels like a dream of something long ago. Like – fantasy.

Omega presses closer beside him. Rex shifts closer to her, as does Wrecker.

"Nice to see you too, Hunter," Wrecker says finally, the first to find his voice, though it's obviously layered with hurt. And with years together, Crosshair can't help feeling his own anger rising at the person who caused it.

"You're the one who came here," Echo snaps, his own blaster raised towards Hunter. It's easy to forget that Echo has lost many of his brothers before. Of course, he's handling it the best, and he's becoming more protective of the others even at the cost of the one he's already lost. Crosshair can't fault him for that. He – understands it. He's the same way. They need Hunter, need him more than all the others because he's their leader, and he always knows what to do, but even Crosshair would let him go if it meant keeping Tech and Wrecker and Echo and – and Omega, of course – safe.

That's what Hunter would've wanted.

And it's – self-preservation and strategy, both. (Echo had mentioned going after Hunter once, and if Crosshair hadn't been so terrified at fighting his brother again, he would have agreed in a heartbeat. He wants nothing more than to see Hunter again, to be with him.)

Rex moves forwards in front of Echo. For a moment, Crosshair thinks it's meant protectively, until he hears Tech talking quietly to Echo, telling him to divert power to the cannons. He has a plan. They just need to buy him some time.

"Drop your weapons," Hunter orders. His blaster is aimed at them – this is the second time today Crosshair has found himself at blaster point by one of his brothers.

"I think not," Crosshair drawls, toying with the idea of reaching for his reflector disks, though he doesn't know if he could get them out without Hunter realizing what he's doing. "I'm not especially keen on being shot today. Not by you. Not by anyone."

"Then you should have listened to orders," Hunter snaps. Crosshair can almost see the intensity on his face and feel the weight of his glare even without seeing his face, even if the helmet he's wearing looks so, so foreign.

Nearby, Echo and Tech are working. The clones are spreading out, surrounding them entirely now, and from this position, they're counting solely on Tech's plan to work. It's their only hope of getting out, and they need to keep talking before this goes south and Hunter figures it out.

"And you always had us follow orders," he replies dryly.

"You betrayed everything we fought for," Hunter accuses. "Everything we were." He sounds bitter. Hurt. Angry.

"At least we have minds of our own," Crosshair snarls back. Wrecker is standing in front of Echo and Tech now, pointedly blocking Hunter's view of them. They just need a few more minutes.

Hunter stiffens. "I chose to be here."

"No," Rex interjects, moving forwards and looking around, scanning everyone facing them. "None of you chose this. And I think somewhere, you all know that."

Hunter's grip on his blaster tightens. Around them, Crosshair sees everyone else raising their blasters. He almost wants to turn around, to give Rex cover, so if Hunter does fire, he doesn't have to watch, but this is – it's his responsibility. Hunter is his responsibility. Rex shouldn't have been dragged into this. And Crosshair is always the first to know when one of his brothers is about to attack – he had to. That's part of what it means to be a sniper.

"The Kaminoans put chips in all the clones," Omega pipes up, moving forwards, "Remember what I told you in the brig? You can't help it."

Of course, that's when Hunter fires. Rex dodges instantly, his blasters out and firing, and Crosshair moves to shoot Hunter's blaster out of his hands.

And that's when a flash grenade goes off, blinding him instantly.

His brothers always warn him about bright lights. He should've seen this coming. He didn't though.

The only thing Crosshair ever had that made him special was his sight. To be without it – even for a moment – is... jarring.

There is no real cover where he and Rex are, so he ducks down to avoid most of the fire. Something grazes him, but his armor absorbs the hit. He still knows the approximate locations of the others and starts firing back – even if he's not entirely certain he's hitting anything.

There's an explosion, followed by a crash, and someone tackles him away from a falling piece of debris.

The worst is fading over and even if everything is hazed over by a ridiculous shade of neon green, from the lightness of the armor, it must be Rex.

With the diversion, the deck is starting to collapse and over half the regs are taken out. The rest are down in moments.

He can't help casting a final look back at Hunter before they run.

**w**

"We have to find a way to throw him off our trail," Rex says as they run.

"He'll always find us," Crosshair reminds, "He's Hunter."

Omega still isn't entirely clear on how his abilities work. She's always wanted to know, but they don't talk about him much. It's obvious it hurts them, so she doesn't want to ask.

"Distance," Tech suggests, "If we cause a massive explosion, we may be able to buy enough time to get to our ships unnoticed."

"Good thing we have explosives, right?" Omega asks.

"First, we need a way off this ship," Echo interjects.

"I know a way," Tech offers. "The ion engine chamber can be our alternate egress of this cruiser."

"I don't even know what that means," Wrecker groans.

They keep moving. Hunter could have... killed them all. He didn't though. But they saw him again. He was right there. Omega wants nothing more than to get him back.

When Omega found her brothers again, she had always thought they would be together. Seeing them being apart from each other, fighting each other, it hurts.

Omega doesn't know anything about Rex, but he seems to have temporarily taken the role as their leader immediately. He obviously fits right in. They must have been close.

"How will we lose the trail here?" Omega asks as they enter the engine. It's... cool, and she'd like to take more time to look at it, but they have to hurry.

"Easily," Tech replies, "If we place a series of charges around this cone, we may be able to break away from the cylinder. The explosion should be enough to lose them."

"Break away?" Omega echoes, "And fall all the way down?"

"We've survived worse," Crosshair says, climbing back down from the part of the engine going outside.

"What's it like out there?" Echo asks.

"Clear. At the moment."

"Then make this fast," Rex orders, "We have to move. The explosion will give us away, even if it will slow them down. This would be easier under cover of darkness."

Setting the charges is fast. Falling is... a bit more terrifying. Wrecker yowls the whole way down. Omega sticks close to Crosshair and Tech, and they hit the ground hard, but everyone is uninjured.

Crosshair moves ahead to scout out, as he usually does. "Our ship is surrounded."

"That's no problem for us," Rex replies, "But I'm already late for a rendezvous. I need to go."

"We can take you to wherever you need to go," Echo offers.

"My ship's still here," Rex says, "Don't worry. Just get back to Ord Mantell safely. I'll meet you there."

Echo nods. "I think we've been running enough."

Omega looks up at him. They were talking about fighting the Empire after they were able to track down Rex. It would be... real fighting, like what she always dreamed of doing. It's not the Clone Wars anymore, but still.

And silently, she can only hope it'll mean they'll find a way to get Hunter back.

**w**

This is – probably – going to be their last time here. They were looking for Rex, and now, they've finally found him. It's... time to get back into the fight. Except no matter how certain of this Echo is, Crosshair is... not entirely. He wants to, yes. But fighting the Empire means fighting Hunter, and he can't do that.

And maybe that's just as much it – he doesn't want to fight without Hunter. He feels lost already, doing what they are.

Fighting him from afar was hard enough. Now, especially knowing what his brother is truly going through, Crosshair can't... do that.

It's not that he doesn't want to fight the Empire after seeing everything they've done. It's just that he... isn't entirely certain of his placement in anything anymore. Not after... Bracca.

And it feels irresponsible to drag Omega into that kind of life. She deserves better. She deserves better than anything they can give her. They're soldiers. She deserves to have... a normal life, to be somewhere that she's safe.

He finds himself alone in the cockpit with Tech when they're in hyperspace. More accurately, Crosshair goes in there to find him. Echo's opinion is already obvious. Omega and Wrecker will go wherever the others do.

"It'll take more than we have to fight the Empire," Crosshair says finally.

Tech looks at him, expression its usual blank, unreadable calm. "Thankfully, there are others out there like us who are already taking action."

Hunter already found them once. He nearly killed them. He easily could have. And Omega will be endangered. "The Empire found us once already."

"Presumedly, the scrappers spotted us outside –"

"It doesn't matter how it happened," Crosshair interrupts, "We're already on their radar. We will put Rex in danger."

"We're soldiers," Tech replies, a bit too flippantly, "That is what we trained for." But Crosshair knows him well enough to see an underlying note of uncertainty.

"Omega wasn't trained for this." Is he using her as a cover for being afraid? Yes. Probably, it's cowardly, but he can't help it.

"Well, this is where she wanted to be. She understands the risks."

It would be different, he suspects, if Hunter were here. He would know what to do about all of this. He would have the answers. They... need him. All of them. It's only becoming more and more apparent. "Does she?"

"Technically, she is older than we are," Tech reminds, "And she may not have been trained, but she is resourceful."

Useful, yes. An asset, yes. But that's not what this is about. He would have taken her even if she weren't – simply because Omega wanted them. And that is all that matters to him, to any of them. Crosshair grew up with only three people he could trust and rely on. Now, that's expanded to five. And he would do anything for Omega.

They all would.

He lets the topic of Hunter rest again, as they always do. Some things... hurt too much to talk about. (Even if they maybe should, because Crosshair does not want to actively fight Hunter, and it's something they'll have to do if they choose to fight.)

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