Chapter Text
Hunter had watched as Crosshair looked out of the ship at the Tantiss base hangar. Had saw how he gazed across the room, eyes suddenly narrowing as he noticed something out of place. He’d watched as Crosshair gestured to Echo to join him in checking it out.
As he sat in the cabin, letting one of the rescued clones tend to his injuries, he watched Omega and Wrecker talking to each other, faces beaming. He was so incredibly relieved to see Omega again, and from what he could tell, she seemed unharmed aside from recent pin pricks on the back of her hands from blood drawings.
Her smile seemed to wipe away the heavy cloud that had been hanging over his head since she’d been taken away.
They had rescued about a dozen clones alongside Omega and were about to retreat to Pabu.
When the clone medic, Scatter, finished tending to his injuries and had turned to check over everyone else, Hunter sat up and looked out of the ship, trying to see what had held up Crosshair and Echo.
As far as he knew, everyone was on board, so why weren’t they on and ready to leave? He didn’t want to be here any longer.
He heard the sound of shuffling and stood to look out at them, stopping short at the sight that appeared before him.
It couldn’t be. Could it?
There, in front of his very eyes was Tech, unconscious and being held up and carried in by Echo and Crosshair.
He met their eyes and felt the urgency and concern they were feeling, which jolted him out of his own shock. He stepped back and looked around for Scatter, calling him over to help. No one else was seriously injured so the clone came quickly, not sparing a second thought when he saw Tech and helping them bring him in and onto a long, low crate serving as a table.
Once Tech was lying down, Echo and Crosshair stood back, letting Scatter look him over with a medical scanner. He noticed the cannula still in his hand as well as the pale sheen of his face.
Hunter looked Tech over from a distance, still reeling from the sight. His face was gaunt and scarred. A long deep scar running from his left brow, just around his eye and down to his lip. Other small scars dotted around his eyes and nose.
His left leg from just below the knee down was replaced by a prosthetic, the two outer fingers of his right hand were misshapen, scars running down his hand and wrist. His fingers and thumb were also purple and red with bruises.
This didn’t seem real.
Tech was dead, he’d watched him fall from the rail car through the foggy sky of Eriadu. But he’d never really seen him die did he? He’d never truly had confirmation.
Either way he’d left him behind. His own little brother. He had no choice, they were under attack and Omega was hurt and there was no way Tech could have survived the fall no way he could- Crosshair held his forearm and spun him around to look at him.
“Hunter.”
He remembered to breathe, gasping for a moment before blinking hard.
Crosshair continued to hold his forearms, frowning in concern.
“I know Hunter, I know. But he’s here, really. We all are.”
Those last three words had his knees trembling and Crosshair guided him to sit on a crate nearby.
They were all here. All of them. All damaged and mismatched and hurt, but together.
Hunter looked up as Omega and Wrecker approached and caught sight of the shock on their faces. He reached out to hold Omega’s hand, asking if she was ok with his expression. She nodded with a tight smile, her eyes glistening.
Echo had gone up to the cockpit with another clone to take off, and they were now entering hyperspace with a jolt. Hunter took one last deep breath to ground himself before standing and approaching the medic.
“Is he ok?”
The clone sighed and turned.
“He’s been drugged with something to keep him awake, I don’t know how long for but it must have been a while. He won’t be waking up any time soon.” He gestured to Tech’s limp form. “He doesn’t have any serious injuries, but the scanner showed some inflammation in his gut which may be an issue. Oh and the bite marks on his hand don’t look good. Nothing’s broken but I’m concerned about it becoming infected.”
Hunter frowned as he listened. Nothing serious right now which was good but there were certainly multiple points of concern.
“Wait, bite marks? Where? From what?”
The medic lifted Tech’s hand.
“Here, around the base of his index finger and thumb, human bites.”
Hunter and Crosshair looked at the marks, red and dark and certainly painful. Once he’d looked them over himself, Hunter figured where they’d come from.
Scatter noticed something change in his expression.
“Do you know who did this?”
“Yes. It was Tech.” Hunter explained, his voice low. “He’s done this a couple of times before when he became very overwhelmed. Though I’ve never seen it this bad before.”
Crosshair nodded along, looking like he was restraining himself from hurting somebody. “Something bad happened to push him way past his limit, someone made him to this to himself.”
The medic frowned but offered a short nod in acknowledgment of the new information.
“He’s probably going to feel overwhelmed when he wakes up then with whatever happened to him recently on top of the drugs wearing off. I’ll get a saline drip in him and some bacta on these wounds for now. Hopefully we’ll have him situated on Pabu by the time he wakes.” With that the he turned to prepare a drip and the bacta while Hunter and Crosshair turned to Omega and Wrecker who were sitting amongst the clones nearby.
Wrecker had been trying to keep Omega occupied and she’d nodded and smiled along to his stories and light hearted comments, but she kept looking over at Tech. And honestly, Wrecker kept checking on him too as he tried to keep Omega and some of the rescued clones distracted from the stress of the days events.
But when Hunter and Crosshair wandered over, his current story about Pabu petered out.
Omega hesitated before speaking up.
“How is he?”
“He’s out cold right now, but he doesn’t have any serious injuries. Looks like he just really needs rest right now.” Hunter reassured.
Omega looked thoughtful for a moment before smiling brightly.
“We’ll take care of him.”
Hunter couldn’t help but smile in return at her optimism. They certainly would take care of him. Hunter intended to give Tech everything he needed to recover. The same went for Omega and Crosshair too.
He sat down by Wrecker and Omega and Crosshair followed suit. Together they shared stories with the rescued clones, unwinding and relishing in each other’s company as they spoke.
Soon they would be on Pabu where they could take their time to heal. But even now, on this ship together, their recovery had already started.