Chapter Text
As the sunlight that managed to flit through the thick evergreen branches reflected off of the powdery snow, the world seemed to glow with that aching, desperate life which seizes the ribs only in the coldest environments. Crosshair supposed it might have been beautiful, but at the moment, it only served to contribute to his pounding headache. Having incredible vision didn’t feel like an enhancement on snow-covered planets, especially not when he was searching for something.
“He’s close.” Hunter glanced around at the edges of the clearing. He didn’t think to look up, but Crosshair did. He always preferred being high above the playing field in a sniper nest, so he could understand the appeal of high places.
“There.” He told Hunter as he watched the Padawan through his scope. Once his target was lined up with the reticle, he moved his finger to hover above the trigger.
“Come on down, kid. We’re here to help,” Hunter said cautiously, as if approaching a frightened animal. Speak for yourself, Crosshair thought to himself. He pulled the trigger, but the boy blocked the blast with his saber.
“No!” Hunter yelled at Crosshair, clearly surprised.
“Liar!” the kid shouted before he darted away.
“What are you doing?” Hunter whirled around on him, and Crosshair didn’t need to see his face beneath his helmet to know that he was frustrated.
“Following orders.”
“We don’t even know what the order is,” Hunter said sharply as he shoved Crosshair back by his chest plate. “Stand down until we know what’s going on.”
Hunter walked off in search of the Padawan. He always seemed to be the one who decided when their conversations ended. Crosshair watched him go, but the light reflecting off of the snow around him seemed to drill into his skull. He felt disconnected from his body, and if it weren’t for the pain in his head, there would be nothing there to ground him.
“Good soldiers follow orders.” His own voice seemed to come from outside his body, and the words left a bitter taste in his mouth. Something wasn’t right. He must just be upset that he had missed the kid the first time. Once he was dead and the order was fulfilled, everything would be back to normal.
He followed the path Hunter had taken out of the clearing, and he stopped several feet behind him when he spotted him. Hunter was listening to his comm, so Crosshair listened in as well.
“We have a situation,” Tech’s voice crackled through the speaker.
“Tell me something I don’t know, Tech,” Hunter answered gruffly. It was always strange to simultaneously hear someone’s voice naturally and over comm when they were standing next to you.
“It appears the regs have been ordered to execute the Jedi.”
“What? Which Jedi?” Why was Hunter questioning orders? It wasn’t their role as a squad to ask questions. Force, his head hurt.
“All of them. They’re saying the Jedi have committed treason.”
Everything seemed to click into place. He now had an objective, and he understood why it was important that he fulfill it. Having a simple purpose was comfortable and familiar.
“That would explain things,” Crosshair drawled. He wasn’t surprised when Hunter turned to snap at him again. He was always so emotional.
“It doesn’t begin to explain things!”
“I suggest you get back here,” Tech interjected calmly, putting an end to their argument before it could start.
“Can’t. Haven’t found the kid yet.”
While Hunter spoke, Crosshair glanced around at the treetops. It wasn’t difficult to spot the padawan. He was so young, and he had never been hunted before, not like this. He was perched on a branch, watching them, and the trees were sparse enough that he was strikingly visible, especially to Crosshair’s sharp eyes.
He could have easily put the kid out of his misery. One twitch of his finger on the trigger, and the boy would be a crumpled heap on the snow-covered ground. He wanted to. He had to. His head was killing him, and somehow, he knew that the pain wouldn’t ease until the Padawan was dead. Beneath the crushing pressure, he had a sense that something was off, like a subluxated joint.
“Wrong,” he said lowly before shooting the branch out from beneath the boy.
After the Padawan landed in the snow, he activated his saber, bathing his young face in blue light. Crosshair didn’t hesitate to continue shooting at him even as the kid deflected all of the blasts.
“Crosshair, stand down!” Hunter said in a sharp, staccato voice that he only adopted when a situation was quickly spiraling out of his control.
As the Padawan drew closer, Crosshair pulled out his pistol before his rifle was knocked out of his hand. It wasn’t his preferred weapon, but it was more than sufficient for what he needed it for: shooting at point-black range.
“Don’t!” Hunter yelled. Crosshair wasn’t even sure who he was talking to at this point.
Crosshair looked back at the boy, and he didn’t have time to react before he was kicked back. He rolled with the momentum until his head suddenly collided with a tree trunk, and everything went black.
When he woke up, he was still in the same spot, and the sun hadn’t moved in the sky. He couldn’t have been out for more than a few minutes. He stood up and followed the footprints in the snow slowly enough that he could stay alert to his surroundings.
It wasn’t long before he spotted Hunter looking across a gorge.
“Where’s the Jedi?” Crosshair asked after stopping several feet behind him.
“I stunned him when he jumped. He didn’t make it.” Hunter replied flatly. He turned and brushed past him as he started walking back.
Crosshair stepped up to the edge and tried to determine what Hunter had been looking at on the other side. When he spotted nothing of note, he looked down at the rapids below. He pulled down his rangefinder to get a better view, but there was nothing to see other than white rapids.
Hunter had been lying about something, that much was clear. Crosshair always found it mildly insulting when Hunter tried to lie to him. They had known each other as long as they had been alive, and Crosshair liked to think that he understood Hunter better than their brothers did. Surely, Hunter didn’t believe that he could deceive him, not after everything that they had been through together.
He turned when he heard footsteps behind him. Three regs were surveying the area. Crosshair walked past them in the direction that Hunter had gone.
When they boarded the Marauder, Crosshair was still trying to determine what exactly Hunter had lied about. It was a welcome distraction from their destination and Tech, Wrecker, and Echo, who were talking excitedly about how long it had been since they had been home. Kamino had never felt much like a home to Crosshair.
When everyone else removed their helmets, he kept his on. He tended to wear his more than the rest of the squad. It provided a clear barrier between himself and the rest of the world. Besides, it hid his expressions, and he was not inclined to wince from the pounding in his head when anyone could see.
He found himself unable to look away from Hunter, who was reclined in his seat with his eyes closed. Why did Hunter refuse to follow this particular order? Wait, that didn’t make sense. Hunter usually didn’t follow orders. Crosshair didn’t either. Why was he following this one-?
A lancing pain shot through his head, cruel enough to make his breath hitch. He internally cursed himself, knowing that Hunter had certainly heard that.
“What?” Hunter asked gruffly as he cracked his eyes open. Crosshair wasn’t sure if he was referring to the staring or the nearly imperceptible sound he had just made, but he did know that he was only willing to address one of those subjects.
“You sure that Padawan died when he fell?”
“Sure I’m sure. Why?”
“Well, usually when someone falls, you look down, not across.” Crosshair watched Hunter’s jaw tighten. From that reaction, what exactly Hunter was lying about became clear.
“Well, some of us don’t like to watch,” Hunter said dismissively as he stood up to join the others.
Crosshair folded his arms over his chest and tried to think of anything but Kamino for the brief time that remained of their travel.
The others seemed so disturbed by the changes evident on Kamino and by the assembly announcing the formation of the Empire, and Crosshair couldn’t understand it. Who cares if they were under a Republic or an Empire? It was all the same. It wasn’t like what happened in the government was their concern anyways. The gleaming Senate building on Coruscant was so far removed from the gritty reality of war that it might as well have been a fixture of a different galaxy.
Before the assembly, Crosshair had confronted Hunter in front of the rest of the group, accusing him of failing to kill the Padawan. He wasn’t sure what he had expected, but it wasn’t for his own squad members to look at him as if he were possessed. Was it so wrong for him to want to fulfill their mission objective? They had never failed before, not until now.
When the others left to train before dinner, meaning to screw around and probably break something, Crosshair took the opportunity to turn out the lights and lie down for a moment. He wasn’t alone for five minutes before he heard the door slide open because Force knows he could never have a moment alone.
“Are you doing alright?” Hunter asked as he approached him slowly. Crosshair had his back to the rest of the room, but Hunter’s footsteps were very audible in the rounded space.
“I would be if you had done your job. The least you could have done was allow me to do mine, but you got in my way.” If he had killed the Padawan, he would have fulfilled the order, and his head wouldn’t hurt so much. Why did Hunter have to go and mess everything up? His misplaced emotions had always been annoying, but this was a bit too far.
Hunter didn’t say anything, and after a few moments, Crosshair sat up to face him. He was studying him carefully, his golden-brown eyes dark and contemplative beneath the dark strands of hair that fell across his forehead.
“Nothing you say could make me agree with you. Not this time,” Crosshair said sharply, intending to hurt him and make him go away. He wanted everyone to go away. Hunter didn’t move.
“I know,” he said softly. “I can see that.”
The sound of the door sliding shut behind him a few moments later felt strangely final.