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You and The Bad Batch were on the way to save Hunter. You knew this would be a trap, but you couldn’t help but think of a certain sniper, your lover. You and the batch didn’t understand what had happened to him at first, his brother, your love. The way he called you and the batch traitor, the way he raised his gun to you, and the way he talked. This wasn’t him, this was not the crosshair you know.
Then, it turned out that the kaminoans had implanted inhibitor chips in every clone to make clones blindly follow orders, even killing the jedi.
“Good soldiers follow orders” This line kept echoing in your head after you heard Crosshair say it. This, this was not the crosshair you know.
***
“You and omega wait here” Echo told you and omega.
“No, we should stick together!” Omega protested.
You put a hand on Omega’s shoulder, trying to calm her.
“No, echo’s right” Wrecker agreed with him.
“Stay out of sight, if things go south we’ll send you a signal. Go back to the ship and contact Rex.” Echo added, looking at you and omega.
You gave him a nod and pulled Omega back to your side before watching them ascend to the training room.
You know how much Hunter meant to Omega, the way they interacted, and the way they cared for each other. You understood why the young girl looked up to him.
“Omega, I’m sure they’ll get Hunter back.” You reassured her.
“I know, and Crosshair.” She looked at you with her bright eyes.
You were a little shocked when she mentioned him. All this time, you tried so hard to suppress your feelings for him, your love for him. The batch knew that you missed him, they could tell. The way you stared into his empty bed, and the nights that you cried until you were too tired and the tears were dried.
“Yeah, and Crosshair…” You smiled sadly at the young girl.
***
When you and Omega joined the batch in the training room, you, Omega, and AZI stayed in one of the gun towers. That was when you saw him, your Crosshair. Hunter and he were tackling each other while Tech, Echo, and Wrecker were shooting the droids.
“I believe you may have activated a few too many droids.” AZI said to Omega and you.
“ We can see that, AZI.” Omega raised her bow, aiming for the nearest droid to Hunter and Crosshair. Meanwhile, you used your blaster to shoot some of the droids near the others.
***
After clearing out all the droids, you, Omega, and AZI joined the others on the ground. You walked closer to Crosshair and Hunter.
You could see that Crosshair was shocked to see you, the coldness in his eyes, mixing up with a tiny bit of shock.
The big scar on the right side of his head was horrifying, did the empire did this to him? Your heart almost broke into million pieces, seeing the love of your life like this.
“Crosshair…” Your voice almost sounded like a whisper.
For a moment, you see the real Crosshair, your Crosshair. But soon replaced by the coldness and aloofness.
“Crosshair, forget the empire. This isn’t you, it’s the inhibitor chip.” Hunter tried to talk some senses into him.
“Wrong.” Crosshair stared back at Hunter. “I had my chip removed a long time ago.” He added.
All of you looked shocked, Tech and Wrecker looked at each other, speechless. Hunter almost looked hurt.
“Since when?” Hunter asked.
“Does it matter?”
“Yes”
No. No. This is not Crosshair. The Crosshair you know would never do this.
“Cross, the empire lied about many things, what if they lied to you?” You asked, trying to hold back your tears.
“This is who I am.”
Crosshair tried to raise his rifle, but Hunter was faster. He stunned him before Crosshair’s attempt.
***
“Hunter, three Venators are descending on the city. We need to leave, now.” Tech stated.
“Wrecker, grab Crosshair. He’s coming with us.” Hunter grabbed Crosshair’s rifle and backpack, while you went to picked up Crosshair’s helmet.
You saw Omega gave Hunter a nod before walking away. Hunter caught you staring at him, so you gave a sad smile to him in return.
“He’s coming home with us.” Hunter said.
***
You and The Batch finally made it to Nala Se’s lab, Tech and Echo were currently trying to figure out a plan. After Crosshair and Hunter’s intense conversation, you saw him walking to the window and taking a seat to rest.
“AZI, come with me, I need your help on something.” You asked.
AZI followed you to Crosshair, you took a seat beside him.
“Crosshair…”
“What do you want?” He asked coldly.
“AZI is a medical droid, he can scan you to check if you still have the chip.”
“Indeed, I helped CT-5555 removed his and CT-5385’s chip according to my memory database.” AZI said.
“Fine.” Crosshair agreed reluctantly.
“CT-9904, this scan only takes a few seconds” AZI said before scanning Crosshair.
To be honest, you knew he still had the chip, you hoped he still had the chip. Cause there was no way, no way the Crosshair you knew would be like this.
“The scan is completed.” AZI said.
“So..?” You asked.
“CT-9904 still has his chip, the chip’s effect was weakened due to the injury from ion engine.” AZI answered.
You felt almost relieved ?
The Batch heard it and rushed to you, “He still has...his chip?” Hunter asked, sounded a little guilty.
Echo, Tech, Omega, and Wrecker looked at each other, surprised by this unexpected news as well.
“That would be correct.”AZI replied.
“Could you remove it, AZI?” Omega asked, she wanted his brother back as much as any of you did.
“Yes. I’m capable of removing CT-9904’s inhibitor chip.”
“Do it.” Hunter said.
You stayed next to Crosshair while AZI removed his chip. The surgery was faster than you think, you hold Crosshair’s hand during the whole surgery, and you still holding it now.
“CT-9904’s chip has been removed. He should be awake in any minutes.” AZI stated.
You felt his hand pressing yours, “Crosshair?”
“I...I…”
“Hey, you’re okay now. We removed your chip.” You reassured him.
Crosshair looked away from you, his eyes filled with guilt, confusion, anger, sadness.
“Don’t you hate me?” He asked. “All those things I had done…”
Your hand reached out to stroke his face, “No. Never. I know it’s the chip, Cross. It’s not your fault.” You smiled at him. “I love you, always and forever.”
Crosshair put his hand on your face, wiping away the tears falling down your face. “ But I shot at you, I tried to kill you… I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry…”
“Shhh, I forgive you, Cross. All of it. I’m sorry we didn’t come to save you earlier…”
Crosshair sat up and pulled you into a hug, you melted into his touch, inhaling his scent. Your Crosshair was finally back to you, this is real. The sleepless night without him, the loneliness, the emptiness, the desperation, were all gone. Crosshair was back to you, alive.
“I love you too, cyare.” He said it back.
He pulled away a little so he could kiss you on the lips, his hand trailed to your nape, kissing you with force. You and Crosshair clung on to each other so hard, afraid you would lose each other again. That was when you heard Hunter cleared his throat, you two finally pulled away from each other.
“I know you two miss each other but this lab is about to collapse. and this is not very…” Hunter said and eyed Omega.
“Right, sorry about that.” You answered, then looked at Crosshair whose arm was still wrapped around you. “Cross.” You nudged him.
“Fine.” He gave up and retreated his arm.
“I see Crosshair still has his severe and unyielding personality.” Tech stated.
“This is called missing someone, Tech.” Crosshair said and pulled out one toothpick to throw it at him.
“Ha! He’s back!” Wrecker exclaimed and playfully punched Crosshair’s shoulder.
Crosshair pretended to show an annoyed face, but deep down you knew he missed his brothers.
“Listen, Crosshair. I’m sorry. We should have come for you earlier.” Hunter said. “I was trying to keep the rest of the squad safe, but you are one of us. I’m sorry.”
Crosshair didn’t say anything, just stood up and walk toward Hunter. For a moment you thought he was going to punch him, but instead, Crosshair extended his hand to Hunter.
Hunter looked at Crosshair’s hand then his eyes, he reached out his hand to shake Crosshair’s.
“We need to leave fast, the structure could not hold much longer.” AZI chimed in.
***
All of you finally made it to the platform, for once the Kamino is sunny.
Omega stared at the Tipoca City, which was all destroyed. “It’s… all gone.”
You looked at that direction, the place all clones called home was all gone.
The Batch and you took a few seconds to process this, to accept the fact.
“We should leave before Empire’s scouts show up.” Tech said.
“You coming with us?” Wrecker asked, looking at Crosshair.
“Yeah.” Crosshair said and took out a toothpick, putting it into his mouth.
Hunter nodded at him before walking to the ship with the others.
You still stood next to Crosshair, “You ready?” you asked.
“Yeah.” He gave you a little smile then intertwined his hand with yours, leading you to the Marauder.
You didn’t know what the future would be, but one thing was sure. Crosshair would be right beside you, always and forever.