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It didn’t seem to take much anymore for the Empire to be able to find Crosshair and his aliit. He’d been informed that previously his batch mates had worked fine as a shipment square and had similar issues. They just didn’t know how to stay out of trouble, or keep trouble away from them.
This particular instance was based around Rex’s need for aid in extracting some clones from a remote location. It just needed the extra help after loosing a large chunk of his previous group of brothers. That was all it was supposed to be.
Yet here he was, stumbling around a ravine with that same clone going for his throat. He assumed it was the same one. There was a knack for monologuing about his failures that you wouldn’t expect from these kinds of clones. It made things so, personal.
“Why wouldn’t you listen!”
The sound of metal against a skull echoed through out the ravine that Crosshair found himself in. Adrenaline fought off the immediate impact of the end of the blaster, but the force still made him fall against the rock. His forehead nearly splitting itself across the cold stone beneath him.
He’d been shot at and even been hit by his handful of blaster fire, but this was personal. This was a special ops trooper taking the time to strike him in the head with the butt of his blaster, and have the nerve to lecture him about what he could have done instead of betraying the Empire.
It was too close to home. It didn’t make sense for another other clone to get this upset over it. Especially not if he never came into contact with them. Which, for all intensive purpose, he would have sworn he never had. At least, until he heard the trooper go on.
“It was simple. All you had to do was continue to follow your orders. You turned your back on your batch for this Empire, and then you go and do the same again. What was the purpose? What was the reason? You had structure and order. Why would you give that up for becoming a rogue?”
“Why do you care?” Crosshair growled, as he felt another blown to his head follow it.
“You betrayed the people who saved you!”
“They didn’t save me. They broke me!” As the trooper attempted to take another swing at him he shot himself backwards and kicked them in the chest. He watched as they stumbled backwards before falling against the rock as well. Their blaster spun out of their hand as the sniper immediately bolted for it.
The trooper wasn’t far behind him. Both of them reached out for the blaster while throwing their bodies into the motion. Crosshair just got luck that he had started toward it first.
His finger wrapped itself around the trigger instinctively and he didn’t hesitate to point it at the other trooper’s head, “Any more monologuing to do?”
“You will never be able to get away from them. But you already know that, don’t you?”
“It’s not hard to guess, but that’s too boring for you. So I’m going to ask you a question instead.”
The trooper didn’t move their head at all, but Crosshair could easily see their fingers twitch. They were waiting for him to pull the trigger. It seemed like they wanted him to pull the trigger. Rather have a death by the enemy then have to go crawling back to the Empire and say that they failed, again.
“Why do you hate me?”
“You betrayed the Empire.”
“This is too personal for that.” Crosshair gritted his teeth, “No other trooper was ready to spill his guts over some trivial betray.”
“Calling the Empire trivial is ludicrous.”
“And no trooper is stupid enough to keep talking.” Crosshair slammed the side of the blaster into the clone’s helmet. He watched as their body swayed to the right before hitting the water. The loud ‘CRACK’ followed by a splash.
The sniper waited a minute to see if the assassin would get back up. When their body didn’t move though, he reached down to grab ahold of their helmet.
If nothing else it was important to remove it from the equation so that it’s tracking technology wouldn’t continue to operate, but also he couldn’t help but wonder if there was something else to this trooper’s vindictive nature. The way they phrased their words just felt too impactful, too pointed. There were layers of blame and anger happening with ever shot and blow, not to mention that they’d waited to kill him to point out how he had failed.
It just wasn’t right.
It didn’t make sense for the Empire to let an operative with such strong emotions into the field. There were so many other broken clones to pick from, why did they send this one?
If it was nothing, then he was being paranoid. He could drag this unconscious trooper back to his vods and leave them with Rex, maybe. And if that was too complicated, it wouldn’t be hard at all to press the trigger. But if he was right, and there was something different with this trooper, then he would always be thankful that he paused before smashing this Empire lackey’s skull in.
He leaned down towards the clone, setting the blaster down close to his feet in case he needed to grab it again, and grabbed ahold of the unusual helmet they wore. It was certainly a striking design. If it had been employed during the Republic’s days he could certainly imagine the rumors that would surround it. Still, he went ahead and removed it from the person’s head.
He detached what was the equivalent of their face, as far as the Empire wanted it to be, only to find his ori’vod on the other side.
For a moment he even doubted that it was Tech. Without his goggles on it just didn’t look right. It didn’t look like him. His face was also smashed up. His nose was crooked and there were cybernetics feeding into the edges of his face. Not to mention the bruises that lined the under part of his neck. Soft blue lights were emanating from under his armor. His vod was more broken than Crosshair could ever have imagined.
Things sort of blurred together after that.
Crosshair had long since gotten used to being pushed to his limits by now. He had been trained to keep it together in almost all situations of torture, he’d steeled himself to stop screaming while in the hands of Hemlock, and he didn’t have a very good track record of expressing his emotions to begin with.
In spite of all that, he couldn’t help but scream.
His vods showed up not long after that. It wasn’t a sound that any of them were used to hearing. Especially with it sounding so full of grief. They knew immediately something was wrong. The panic in their eyes when they got to him though, Cross didn’t think he’d ever forget it.
They were so confused, so scared. They asked him what was going on, but it didn’t take long fro them to figure it out when they saw Crosshair leaning over the formerly active special ops trooper.
They were on a tight schedule, and needed to get off the planet fast, but Wrecker immediately grabbed ahold of their former batch mate and Hunter began ushering Crosshair back to the ship. No one said anything as they waded their way through the water.
Though Crosshair’s thoughts couldn’t help but drift to wondering what Omega was going to say once they got back to Pabu. Or how much trouble it was going to take to fix this horrible, horrible, mistake.
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A lot of movement had to happen after they found Tech. Pabu wasn’t safe anymore. There was too much at risk they continued to stay on such a peaceful planet. Pit stops would just have to do for now, at least until Omega stopped being the main priority on the Empire’s list.
Which didn’t seem like it would be happening any time soon, but sticking to the Outer Rim wasn’t a bad plan over all. There were always a handful of settlements to keep in mind, a few locations Phee was able to tip them off, and the general understanding the most planets would be suitable for them to hide in for a few hours.
Generally, this plan would be suitable if they were only trying to avoid the Empire. Things became more complicated when they tried to take into account the volatile personality they kept having to deal with.
All forms of neutralization and tracking had been taking care of first. Since then it had mostly amounted to try to de-program whatever had been pounded into his normally thick skull. Echo had started tagging along with them as well to ensure that the up keep on his cybernetics matched with what the Empire had given him.
Crosshair still couldn’t comprehend why they would even both putting this many resources into him. He was so badly beaten up that it seemed like such a waste to even attempt to repair him, at least from an Empirial point of view.
He felt horrible even considering the logistics of it though. His ori’vod was alive. That’s all that should matter to him. Another part of aliit had come back from the dead. They certainly had a habit of doing that. It would be amusing, if it didn’t always lead them into the Empire’s arms.
He was in charge of looking after Tech, so he had to think about all these little details constantly. His hyper vigilance had saved his vod’s life a few times from a server overload, or an attempt on his own life.
It made his stomach churn everytime something like that happened. He really was the same vod he’d once spent late nights with, but that persistence that once had lead to late night ramblings was being put in the wrong direction.
Death was now this trooper’s main objective.
Death, and not talking.
Ironic, all things considered, how hard it was to pry conversation out of Tech now. His eyes were the only thing that could indicate what was going on inside his head. And most of the time they were shooting daggers through him.
Today, though, he had a peace offering.
“Found something of yours.”
He held out an older pair of those same goggles he’d seen shattered on Pabu. He’d found it in a crate full of old gear. Wrecker said that it had been under Tech’s work station since before he fell, they just never had the nerve to get rid of any of it.
“It’s an older prescription, and an older build. Probably too tight for you at this point. But I think you’ll like being able to see again.”
Tech scrunched up his face while Cross got down his his knees to reach his vod’s level. “It’s not much, I know, but I’m hoping it will be easier for you to remember us with them on. If they give you a headache though, just say something.”
“Pain is just pain.”
“Ah, so you can speak. Here I thought that you’d bitten off your tongue by now. Seems like something the Empire would want you to do.” He smirked as he lifted the goggles above Tech’s head.
“And you would be a good judge of what the Empire wants?”
“Better than most. I didn’t suffer through their hell for nothing.”
“You made a choice. You wanted to be there.”
“I wanted stability.” The band snapped itself around his brother’s head. “I lacked the foresight to see that they would not give me what I wanted.”
Tech’s face scrunched up briefly at the sudden sensation, but regard it’s neutral composure soon enough. “They gave you a job. You played the role clones were meant for. That should have been enough.”
“Yet they didn’t care about me. I didn’t know what I had until I lost it. Our aliit was what I wanted. They just seemed too unpredictable at the time.”
“They are unpredictable.”
“And that’s what makes them better than the Empire.”
“They are not better than the Empire!” He snarled, if he hadn’t been tied up for his own good Crosshair would have expected him to bite his nose off. Loyalty was certainly one of the main things they knew how to beat into their operatives. “They are pathetic. They’ve wasted any potential they had left after Order 66 on fulfilling errands for underground scum bags and running like womp rats when danger arrives. They are nothing compared to the Empire. And they will always be nothing.”
“I’m sure you think that now, but you had far more faith in them a year ago.”
“There was no year ago. I am not your brother.”
“Then who are you?”
“I am what Dr. Hemlock wants me to. I follow my orders. I need nothing else.”
“I’m sure you don’t.” If the words coming out of his brother’s mouth weren’t so hateful he’d almost feel like he had him back. The way his eyes moved around within the goggles were just like old times. Practically the same as the first time he’d ever gotten them on Kamino. He’d finally been able to see that day, and it wasn’t too far from the truth to say the same was true now. “But my oir’vod always needed more than that. He needed entries on the wider galaxy to keep him quit at night. He needed a data pad in his hand at all times just to research on something that interested him even slightly. He needed to have a name to feel like he was more than a number. We all needed our names to feel like more than a number. The Empire will never be able to take that away from us.”
Tech’s face didn’t change at all once he’d finished talking. He just continued to stare blankly beyond his brother.
“You don’t have to continue to play by their rules. You can be whoever you want to be. Even if that isn’t our vod. If you have no memory of us there is nothing stopping you from becoming your own person. Just your own choices in this new life.”
He felt horrible saying that this clone didn’t have to be his brother, but it was more accurate than Hunter, Wrecker, or Omega were willing to be. If he had no memory of them at all, and didn’t want to comply with their pleas to be heard out, then what was really binding him to be their lost vod. His face may have been the same, but it was the personality and memories that matter at this point. And this trooper had none of that.
“Just, think about it for now. There’s always tomorrow, after all.”
He got up to leave the room, but as he was on the threshold he heard, “Tell me more about this Tech you’re always going on about. It would be better to assess the facts then completely deny them at this point. Since you all seem so, insistent that we are one in the same.”
Crosshair felt a weight fall off his shoulders then. “Where would you like to start?”
It was a step in the right direction. It was nothing too big, or too concrete, but it at least showed that he was willing to listen now.
And being heard out was the most he and his vods could hope for now.