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It’s no ordinary mission. Clone force ninety nine didn’t do ordinary missions, although that’s not all that sets this mission apart.
It’d be their first time working with General Skywalker and General Kenobi as well as Commander Tano. Except it would seem General Skywalker wasn’t entirely pleased with his padawan’s presence.
Both Master and Padawan hadn’t noticed them, Kenobi giving them a brief apology and an even shorter explanation for the pair's plight.
Something about one of their targets inside having a lust for togruta and the general did not want the girl in the bastards vicinity at all even if he was there beside her.
“I know you can handle yourself!” They all hear him hiss, an irritated and hurt growl coming from the togruta in response before she turned her back on her master. Her white facial marked brow furrowed and arms petulantly crossed.
“Snips?” the general's voice softens at her action, his hand moving to rest on her shoulder. Begrudgingly Ahsoka turns back under his hand, head tilting as she looks up at him, her eyes wide and imploring.
“I know you're upset and I know you can handle yourself. You just have to trust my reasoning on this, and you’ll still be on the job. You’ll be with Crosshair watching out in case the target gets past us, alright?” Anakin questions, making a gesture toward the sharp shooter.
Immediately Crosshair feels hundreds of eyes on his person, not only from the Jedi or his squad, but all the present members of the 501s’t as well.
They knew from Rex already they were protective of the girl, but they hadn’t known it was to this extent, all these regs were willing to lay down their lives for her and not just out of obligation.
Crosshair of course feels the same stirring, it ingrained into him even with his augmentations, and it seems the rest of the batch feel the same.
Except, he didn’t know how to deal with...children even if they were a remarkable padawan - she had to be if she was the chosen one’s ward, but her accompanying him on a roost certainly hadn’t been in the plan.
When the girl looks over at him, she offers a smile. Odd since she was just upset about having to technically sit this mission out yet she didn’t want to offend him in some way by showing her dissatisfaction.
Not that he minded or was offended. This was a shock and certainly something dull for the both of them.
“Alright,” the girl concedes before they all convened. Crosshair taking notice the padawan stood directly at his side and there were still plenty of eyes on him.
It only slightly annoyed him as he chewed on his toothpick and scouted out a place he could set up.
The clone flips his toothpick in his mouth when he finds a cliff face that not only was decently covered with foliage and had a clear view of the facility and where their target would be.
It’d be a bit of a hike but the onslaught wouldn’t be immediate, the others had their own preparations to make.
“You find a spot?” Ahsoka whispers, craning her neck to look up at him (He was only two inches taller than her master so she was probably used to it.).
He gives her a brief nod and she seems pleased with the answer, not seeming to mind his curtness in the slightest.
“You two better get going,” Obi-Wan advises, the words causing Anakin to stand straighter.
He doesn’t need to say anything, Crosshair understands by the look alone what’s being asked of him, commanded: protect the girl.
Admittedly he still wasn’t all that thrilled about babysitting, except Crosshair can’t help the tiniest bit of pride that wells up from within when he realizes how much trust was being put forth into him; and him alone in watching over who seemed to be the backbone of their battalion.
He could thumb his nose at the regs.
With a salute, Crosshair sends a glance towards his squad. Wishing them well, it wasn’t often they weren’t actively together on a mission even if he was always a little further away. He just wouldn’t be actively covering for them this time around.
Ahsoka even with her smaller legs manages to keep with his pace, surprising since she’s eyeing him as she walks.
Trying to get a read on him. Something tells him she’s a talker, so it’s a little odd she hasn’t said anything; although it’s almost a blessing because he certainly wasn’t one for chatter.
Maybe she knew that and was simply sparing him.
“I’m sorry if it seemed like I wasn’t excited about going scouting with you. I just wasn't expecting to technically be benched, and that has nothing to do with you,”
Oh it appeared she was going to talk. Crosshair simply nodded once more. He already knew all that, and he hadn’t blamed her; there was no need for her to apologize.
A huff of relief left her at that, the two coming across a steep valley they could reasonably climb and traverse.
His firepunch shifts on his back, wordlessly he allows her to go first lest she accidentally fall he could catch her.
When she reaches the top, Ahsoka offers her hand, and Crosshair takes it although he does most of the work in pulling himself up.
Fearing his weight would pull her back over the edge, and he didn’t want to seem rude even though that’s never mattered to him before.
“This way,” his gravelly tone calls, Ahsoka brightening at his voice alone. Eager to follow along even though she technically outranked him.
General Skywalker hadn’t told him much, just take out the target if he got away from them. An arm or a leg, not a kill, but the man hadn’t specified if the commander could make any changes or orders herself.
He didn’t think so, especially because she kinda had been acting like a child before when told no, and the general had seemed firm.
Crosshair didn’t know if the girl followed orders as well as a soldier. He had a feeling she only did when she actively agreed with them.
He really was babysitting then. Maker, he hoped she didn’t try to run off or anything.
It didn’t seem like she would, but you never knew, he certainly didn’t. Crosshair didn’t know much about the padawan other than she was beloved.
With some time they reach the destination, the clone immediately gets to work on patting down some of the foliage so he could rest on it without any pain while covering the spot a little more thoroughly.
Ahsoka watches as he works, looking a little awkward, not knowing what to do. He almost forgot she was there for a second, well he did because he hadn’t made any room for her, so with a sigh (aimed at himself not her) he flattened out a little more space beside him.
Getting to his knees Crosshair sets down his rifle, moving to put it together. The ground shifts behind him as the padawan shifts on her feet, and when he pats the ground beside him she thankfully gets the point and settles.
Watching intently as he configured his weapon and settled into position. It checks out, and he sighs, waiting for the comm to tell them when the battle would take way.
He can’t help but notice her intrigue so he settles his prized weapon before her. Jedi weren’t actively supposed to use guns, or he didn’t think they were, and maybe it wasn’t appropriate for him to introduce her to a firearm but he didn’t want to tell her no.
Didn’t know how to either.
Eagerly the girl scoots closer, his shoulder overlapping hers as he positioned her, the girl’s wide eyes locking onto his scope.
“Obi-Wan says guns are an uncivilized weapon for a Jedi Knight,” her voice is dripping with disdain, eyes rolling in annoyance, it was obvious she didn’t think the same.
Crosshair didn’t either, he thought guns were plenty respectable, then again he certainly had some bias. His rifle was his world, and the girl seemed just as enamored with it as she inspected it with her tangerine fingertips.
With time to kill he explains the mechanics and how to get the near perfect shot.
She eats up the information hungrily, and it’s worth the strain of using his voice so much; even when he’s pretty sure it’s the most he’s actually spoken in months.
When she’s learned all of his prized weapons secrets she unclips one of her sabers from her belt, handing it over for him to inspect.
It’s simpler than he thought, yet he listens as she explains, even indulging her with a brief smile through his toothpick as she boasts about her reverse grip.
Admittedly it was quite interesting, her reverse grip was favorable to him as well.
Babysitting wasn’t so hard.
When he bites through his toothpick Crosshair simply spits it out, watching as the pieces fell out over the edge before he reached back to his belt to grab another from his pack.
Ahsoka leaned out of his way so he didn’t bump her as he did so, her chin resting on her forearms as she looked out. The jingling of the small cardboard box has the girl's posture straightening.
Looking towards him intrigued as he slipped it open and pulled out another before offering it over, feeling as if her glare was burning through his hand.
She takes one with a smile, positioning it in her lips in the same way he did with his own. Sticking out of the left side of their mouths.
“When or how did you get a fixation for these?” It’s a fair question as he readjusts himself and leans into his rifle, eye trained on the scope.
“Ninety nine got me a pack after a test,” The grey haired clone admits, “Helps me focus,”
“Mm,” she hums thoughtfully in response, idly switching the pick from side to side.
“Sometimes I wonder how I stay focused in battle, I can see why this is grounding,” Ahsoka’s voice is soft at that, it makes the man think more than he ought to.
She was a child. One at war. Hopefully soon she'd find something to ground her, it likely won’t be toothpicks which weren’t really that practical - he’d nearly been impaled by a few on several different occasions, but he hoped she found something fitting of her personality.
“It might be my sabers, it feels right to have them,” there’s certainly more to it than that. More things she doesn’t say, and of course he won’t push, although he’s more intrigued than he’s been in a long time.
He’d like to hear what she had to say, but he was content all the same to drop it. Crosshair had only (very recently) seen her hold her lightsaber once, not even in battle, and he already can’t imagine her without them.
The clone had some hunch about what she was referring to, like how he thought about his rifle. What it meant to him.
And their stakeout continues on.
Crosshair lightly adjusted his stance, needing to with Ahsoka having rolled over from her spot at his side so she was now laying on his back. Staring up at the sky.
It didn’t matter much to him, not when she wasn’t the one who had to potentially shoot someone. Plus she wasn’t exactly heavy, even if he didn’t often like touch.
It didn’t feel as bad as when others touched him, it was oddly seamless. He was truly starting to understand why the regs liked her so much.
She wasn’t shy with her attention when comfortable and she legitimately cared about him and the other clones, individually.
Enough that he didn’t actually mind her presence, even her back lek pushing between his shoulder blades.
“So it would seem that no news is good news at the moment?” Ahsoka ponders, and when he looks at the facility through his scope, not picking up on anything - not even a scuffle he makes a noise of agreement.
“Crosshair?”
The clone lightly angles his head to motion towards her, showing her she had his attention, silently encouraging her to continue:
“I know Jedi are supposed to be patient, but I don’t know how you do this,” the comment actually caused him to huff out a laugh, her lightly shaking on his back with the force of it.
“Is that a compliment?”
Ahsoka has to cover her own mouth so she doesn’t laugh too loudly and potentially blow their cover, “Consider it the highest,” she retorts, living up to the nickname her master had referred to her as earlier.
The man cements his smile. Still not noticing anything out of place.
Then again he doesn’t have to because Ahsoka does as a ship that is not one of their own flies overhead, the shadow casting over them and pulling up the man’s head.
With a hand Crosshair knocks the girl off his back so she was at his side again, the same hand steadying her by keeping her shoulder blades down while she called out through the comm, warning the troops of the upcoming reinfoments.
They haven’t been spotted, although that doesn’t end up mattering either. Not as an aerial assault begins, bombs breaking the air.
The cliff they're on blows, the impact thankfully sending them backwards and not forwards into the crevice. Crosshair utilizes his larger build to cover the togruta, both curling as they’re forced to roll.
Ahsoka extended her fingers to pull the man’s rifle back from nearly falling over the edge before they finally settled. Crosshairs back flat to the ground as her head rested against his rib cage.
“You alright little one?” The clone's voice is pained and annoyed all at once, the breath having been knocked out of him, and her position likely wasn’t helping but neither could move.
“Mhm,” she murmurs, trying to get her own lungs to work again, “I just-“ the girl trails off, “Let’s just lie down for a little bit longer,” it wasn’t as if the guns were aimed at them, and from the beeping of her comm they both recognized the chime of a mission completed so they didn’t have to worry about their target; the bastard either in custody or dead.
“Agreed,” Crosshair returns, head thumping back against the dirt after trying to catch a glimpse of his prized rifle - relieved it was in sight.
The sinewy clone watched carefully as they returned down the same steep slope they’d used to get up to their now destroyed roost.
Offering his hand for Ahsoka to take as she rushed down a deeper point, nearly tripping if it weren't for his support.
“You know it was probably dangerous climbing down this with that toothpick?” The girl teases, and he rolls his eyes endeared.
The rendezvous is just up ahead, and Crosshair doesn’t let the collective sigh of relief the regs let out when they see the pair of them together in one piece bother him.
In fact they seemed shocked the girl was smiling up at him. As if they didn’t think they’d have gotten along, probably because of him because it certainly wouldn’t have been because of her.
In the end none of that matters because General Skywalker looks proud and pleased, offering him a nod of thanks.
“Thank you Crosshair, for everything. I enjoyed it,” Ahsoka spoke up, jumping forward to hug the clone.
Again all eyes were on him, and most pressing was his own squad who would surely say something about this later; still he wraps an arm around her shoulders for a moment before letting her go.
“No problem kid,”