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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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SW Suddenly-Omegaverse AU: Surrogacy, Worldbuilding, Obi-Mom

Truly the main irony of all this is that everyone considers Obi-Wan the Better Omega but Anakin is the one who's actually 👀👀👀 about pregnancy

Obi-Wan: I have the deepest respect for those who do it, but the idea of growing another person inside of me is weird and gross, no, thank you.

Meanwhile Anakin is like. Immediate baby fever. Someone actually approaches him like "hey... there are forms you can fill out to request an exception for pregnancy, and like... regulations" because he's that obvious about it.

I assume that if they've got safety nets for accidental pregnancies, then they're probably aware that there are people who want to do it on purpose? I feel like in an omegaverse where 'biological imperative to procreate' can be so much more intense, then maybe there's old precedent that stuck around even after suppressants got most of those hormones under better control.

Bit torn. Just know I want Anakin to Make Baby.

"Anakin, what are you--" "Do you think offering to be someone's surrogate would be acceptable to the council as a way to be pregnant without getting attached." "...what." "They'd probably accept that as a way to practice not getting attached, right?" "N...no, that's not... what?"

Anakin approaching Bail and Breha and being like “Do you... still want a kid? I would provide a kid. Do you want one here*?”

* in this dimension

Great way to give up the baby as a parent because he'd still be able to see them once in a while but also like... it's not HIS kid, technically. He can be a cool uncle who happened to give birth, which is distant enough to not be 'attached,' but close enough that his Tatooine-raised 'must ensure family is safe whenever possible' background doesn't flip out. It helps that 'Core World Royalty' is like... a top-tier family to be raised in.

(It would have to be post-war because he probably shouldn’t be risking his life while very pregnant. He needs to be reminded of that sometimes.)

Bail/Breha is an alpha/alpha relationship and while a pregnancy is still possible,* it’s a whole lot more difficult, and that's on top of Breha's canon medical issues that resulted in her heart and lungs getting replaced.

* AFAB alphas can get pregnant, and AMAB omegas can inseminate, but the success rate on that angle is much lower than the 'traditional' alpha/omega roles, as is any attempt at reproduction outside rut/heat. They're low-fertility overall for the non-dominant aspect of their reproductive system, which... ha, Anakin and Obi-Wan try to get explanations for why the senary system works the way it does, but it's a very longform history lesson that comes down to 'idk this got cemented so long ago that nobody really knows why anymore.'

AKA "why do you title these roles male omega and female alpha instead of intersex omega and intersex alpha since both parties have both genitals."

ANYWAY

Anakin: I want to make babies. But I don't want to get kicked out of the order. But I don't want to give up my own babies for adoption. But I can't keep my own babies if I want to stay a Jedi. So basically I want to have someone else's babies? Anakin: ...wait shit that's just surrogacy.

Anakin, calling up Obi-Wan: Hey are the Organas still struggling to have a kid? Obi-Wan: ...not really your business. Anakin: You're friends with Bail again though, right? Obi-Wan: I am, but-- Anakin: Do you think they'd want me to be a surrogate? Obi-Wan: What.

I can't decide if it's funnier for the Order to be like "I mean... technically there's no rules against this?" or if this is a precedent set by at least three omegas every generation because that's just how a/b/o manifested for omegas in a biological and cultural sense.

Bail: Wait, your former apprentice is... volunteering... to be our surrogate. Obi-Wan, exhausted: Yes. Bail: He barely knows us. Obi-Wan: He respects you and you're the closest people he knows that want a child and would be good parents. Bail: And he's just... volunteering? Obi-Wan: Yes. Also, you did say your primary worry was that a surrogate might be targeted for assassination and you couldn't ask someone to risk that, right? Anakin is very much able to avoid assassins, and would be staying primarily in the Temple anyway. Very safe, and not particularly scared of assassins in the first place. Bail: Your words say you approve, but your tone says otherwise. Obi-Wan: Anakin considers me his father. I'm not old enough to be a grandparent. Bail: Ah.

Anakin is a surrogate and enjoys it and everything is fine and then like a year later he's accidentally pregnant with his own and Rex's kid, and nobody knows how to ask if it's actually an accident.

A suggestion from @gelpenss:

OH MAN i.... have to drive home. But I just had a thought about like. I always want to poke at Betas in A/B/O like are they “normal” or different from our standard or.... but ANYWAY assuming they have a pheromonal thing I just think it would be neat if betas had the ability to be the Bucket of Cold Water. Like if caught early enough, and with the caveat it’s not permanent, a beta could arrest a rut or heat in its tracks until a more ideal time. Like. They aren’t birth control. But they are the remind me later button.

Okay done driving I am Returned to bring up why I brought up betas and it’s this: well okay 1. It plays nice with a popular but inaccurate dog breeding urban legend that female dogs will like, delay heat cycles? so that the bitches above them in pack hierarchy have first choice of mate selection. And I think in omegaverse it would be cool if that was a Bio Fact, and also historically enforced by the third designation. 2. It gives me an excuse to have betas have the Most Sensitive sense of smell because it’s their “job” to pick up on things before they go too far to be put on pause. 3. I’m just thinkin ‘bout a beta clone [...] just hovering around Obi-Wan because they found out how much stress his heat cycle causes and they’re like “okay cool I will help make sure it does Not”

I want to like a/b/o verses but betas niggle at me. I want to give them a hat and a Function that woulda helped before modern medicine.

I'm not sure how I feel about betas being able to delay heats, but I do like the idea of them having a more sensitive sense of pheromone smell than most. Most aliens assume it's omegas with the best sense of smell, and betas with the worst, but it's more complicated than that because they all specialize: Alphas are actually less attuned to pheromone smells, but more attuned to things that were useful back when humans were still a hunter-gatherer species. Omegas tend to be heightened towards danger smells like fire or aggression, and pheromones relating to children/care. Betas, as suggested above, are very sensitive to pheromone changes relating to mood and behavior of the community around them.

I like the idea that betas were historically the ones that ended up taking care children, unmated omegas, and so on during people's heats and ruts, because they kept their heads about themselves long enough to do things like cook and clean while someone was reeking of hormones. The checks and balances work out that betas may have lower fertility, but it makes them better able to support the network around them.

It works in with humanity's general collective history of thriving the most when working as a community.

Given that I decided that this is Jangobi, the clones might all subconsciously view Obi-Wan as Mom. Not intentionally, but, you know... Obi-Wan the not-evil stepmother. He doesn't know how he got into this situation, but he sure is here, and he sure as hell doesn't know how to get out.

Obi-Wan "I don't need to get pregnant, I have three million stepchildren" Kenobi

I definitely love "clones all want to make Obi-Wan's heats less stressful" but like in a different way from Whatever The Fuck Anakin's Got Going On.

Obi-Wan using the force to dull the pain in a Shiny's broken leg while the medic works on it and the Shiny just mumbles "Thanks mom" and everyone gets very embarrassed and pretends it didn't happen.

But then it happens again. And again.

Obi-Wan asks for an explanation from Cody and gets a halting response that, since Jango is technically their father, and his scent has been all over Obi-Wan recently... and Obi-Wan puts in a lot of effort to take care of them all.......

Anakin overhears the clones calling Obi-Wan "mom" and just. The most judgmental eyebrow raise.... Mostly in the sense of "You never let me call you dad" "Thought you said you weren't anyone's parent." "Hey, hey, Obi-Wan. What the fuck."

BOBA. BOBA ABSOLUTELY CALLS OBI-WAN MOM WHENEVER POSSIBLE. IT'S DEEPLY FRUSTRATING.

Obi-Wan eventually manages to admit that he's uncomfortable with it at minimum because of the gendering the word has for him, can they at least use the neutral 'buir' instead?

Word spreads like fire, takes like two days max for everyone to switch.

(Anakin demands cuddles as compensation for not getting to call Obi-Wan any true parental term for years.)

#Anakin Skywalker #Obi Wan Kenobi #Bail Organa #Rexwalker #Jangobi #Captain Rex #Commander Cody #Boba Fett #star wars #the clone wars #omegaverse #SW Suddenly Omegaverse #mpreg tw #phoenix posts

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happytroopers · 3 years

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crosshairs fic idea: reader is gossiping with coworkers (maybe medics idk) about who the most attractive clone is and reader mentions crosshair and he somehow finds out and teases her

Teasing // Crosshair x reader

“It’s definitely Captain Rex. ” Tula, a Rodian nurse from the 212th, stated decidedly. You giggled into the shitty GAR rationed caf.

“That’s just cause your into blondes.” You teased, content with the rounds of chuckles at the mess hall table as Tula’s teal cheeks blushed blue.

“I still don’t know why we’re having this conversation, they’re clones, they all look the same! Thats like the whole thing.” Rys groaned uncomfortably, the only man at the table of civilian enlistments. It was rare for some many of your friends to be in the same place at the same time- but medical staff and engineering alike, every six months after your first deployment civilian enlistments were shipped back to Coruscant for a week long training refresher.

“You can’t say that, it’s rude!” Tula slapped his arm, eyebrow ridges furrowing over her galaxy eyes. He held his hands up in surrender.

“Yeah Rys, we won’t assume you’re any less straight if you admit that Wolffe is clearly the most attractive.” Raina grinned, her peach colored lekku twitching at the thought of the commander. You considered the idea but shook your head as other names got thrown around.

Kix, Fives, Bly, Keeli, Cody, and a couple other names you didn’t quite recognize the names of were tossed around the table. Haircuts, scars, tattoos, personality all became deciding factors as you at your dinner, occasionally chiming in to tease your friends.

“Ok then, who do you think the hottest soldier is?” An engineer from some outer moon data post asked after you teased her for her choice- Tup, a younger soldier in the 501st that you hadn’t met since your transfer to Clone Force 99.

You held your hands up, ready to evade the question. But Raina interjected, a challenging look on her face. You’d gone through academy with the peachy colored twi-lek and her sharp tongue was almost faster than her flying. You knew that look, and it didn’t bode well.

“If you don’t answer, I’ll tell every trooper I see all week that you said it was them.” She threatened with a smirk that said she already knew she had won. The smirk grew to a grin when you let out a defeated sigh.

“Well, in my own personal opinion, that Crosshair is the most attractive man we work with.” You admitted quietly. An honest answer on your part, you did think he was attractive even if you’d never say it to his face. Immediately, several pairs of disbelieving eyes landed on you.

“What? He doesn’t even count!” Rys pointed an finger at you to emphasize his point, “he doesn’t even look like the other clones!”

You shrugged as Tula slapped the back of his head again, her voice scolding as she hissed, “You can’t say that either!”

Then she looked at you, “Really though? He’s meaner than a burned gundark.”

“He’s scary.” Raina nodded.

“He’s an ass.” Another one of the 212th enlistments echoed from down the table. You’d forgotten that a few of the units they were assigned to probably had worked with Clone Force 99 at some point. Nevertheless, suddenly, you felt a need to defend the sniper who had finally become what you’d consider a friend.

“Ok, so it takes a while to get to know him, but...” you started, thinking of all the amazing qualities no one else saw because they weren’t with him all the time, “he’s loyal to a fault, really funny, always pulls me out of sticky situations and usually manages to keep me out of them to begin with, once you get to know him and how he is, you see how much he cares about his-“

“Ok, sure,” Raina cut you off, clearly not believing the cold eyed sniper could care about anything or anyone. She paused to pitch her voice up, flutter her eyelashes, and clasp her hands beside her face like a cartoon princess, “we don’t know him like you do~”

She interrupted herself with a snicker before she continued in her normal voice, “and all that bantha crap, but this is about attractiveness. What makes him hot? And don’t give me any of this, personality is all I look at shit.”

“And if I tell you, you’ll leave me alone?” You asked, though it was more of a demand. Tula nodded, she had always been a little boy crazy, and was dying to hear the scoop. You sighed again, hoping your cheeks weren’t too flushed, “fine, He’s very unique looking, in all the best ways. He’s very tall and lean, but crazy built. I’m into the silver hair, and believe it or not, under the armor that man has the best ass you’ll ever see.”

Tula was leaning on the table, giggling wildly at the juicier bits of you description. Raina had leaned back in her seat, and rolled her eyes, “To each their own, I suppose.”

Fortunately for you, the conversation switched to complaining about to the soldiers that were in charge of your training. There was a rumor the Fox used “civilian training” as punishment for his men when they earned a reprimand. It made sense, all the Coruscant guardsmen that were tasked with running drills with you weren’t exactly thrilled to be there. As if any of you were either.

“Yeah, I definitely don’t understand that attitude. We get it, you don’t want to be here, neither do we, but we are so let’s just get it over with- with out the..... are you even listening?” You were in the middle of your tangent when it was clear none of your group was listening to you. Instead there were all staring over your head with varying looks of slight fear, curiosity, and overall disdain. Tula was the one who attempted to subtly point behind you. At first you feared it was one of the troopers in charge of your training, so you quickly turned around with a forced apologetic look on your face.

To your surprise, you found Crosshair. Helmet free, as usual he had a toothpick between his teeth as he gave your group an appraising sweep. He had the same look on his face that he did when he was sizing up ‘the regs’- until he got to you. It took a year for him to stop looking at you that way, but his slight sneer eased out to neutral-which when it came to the sniper, it might as well have been an ear to ear grin.

“Crosshair! What are you doing here?” You asked, turning around in your seat. In addition to his sudden appearance, just his president was slightly confusing. Typically, Hunter would come himself, or send Tech- all to avoid a potential fight. Your training mates looked slightly bewildered at the amicable exchange.

“Springing you. We’ve got an assignment.” He shrugged after plucking the toothpick from between his lips. Like a true creature of habit, he started twirling the stick between his fingers. You quirked an eyebrow motioning to the other civilians.

“You can’t ‘spring me’, it’s GAR regulation for me to do this training refresher.” You reminded him, he rolled his eyes- but you weren’t sure if his disdain was for your use of air quotes or just disdain for GAR regulation in general. With any member of the Bad Batch, it was usually general disrespect for the rules. You gave him a look before continuing, “I still have three more days.”

“Is it really training? You could run circles around anyone here, especially them.” He drawled as he nodded his head over his shoulders at the table of red painted troopers who were eyeing him in distrust. Your eyes went a little wide, was that a compliment? And then you ducked your head at the offended glares of your table. In an effort to prevent a fight, you stood quickly before letting him lead you off.

“They’re aren’t gonna let me leave, Crosshair.” You reminded him, looking up to meet his eyes. He smirked a bit, setting his eyes forward.

“How are they gonna stop us?” He challenged, dropping his smile to glare at a passing trooper.

“Well, ion cannons come to mind.” You mused before clearing your throat, “You guys could always go with me, you went on plenty of missions before you got stuck with me. It be like the good ole days.”

He didn’t laugh at your joking tone, but shook his head, “You’re one of us, you stay with us”

You were stunned to silence for a second, despite your friendship he’s never referred you you as ‘one of them’. Heat rose to your cheeks as you exited the corridor into a lift, so Crosshair diffused the tension.

“Mission takes precedence over regulations. When have we been know to follow the rules, anyways.” He mused, swiping his ID card so the lift would let you out in the hangar. He relaxed a bit when you snorted a laugh before he continued on, “Besides, how can pull you out of sticky situation if you’re on a different planet?”

You froze in your spot, stomach dropping and cheeks flaring with red hot embarrassment; you had forgotten the cardinal rule of working with Crosshair.

If you didn’t have eyes on Crosshair, Crosshair definitely had eyes on you. And in this case, apparently ears as well.

“Ok, look-“ you started, hoping to ease your embarrassment, but all of the excuses you could come up with fell flat before they made it out of your mouth. Fortunately, the lift door slid open, allowing you to escape before you could further your embarrassment.

Crosshair actually chuckled out loud, long legs easily traipsing past you as he headed towards the Havoc Marauder. Momentarily, he twisted around to walk backwards, pointing his toothpick towards you, “Don’t worry, your ass is almost as good as mine.”

#crosshair x reader #crosshair x you #bad batch x reader #bad batch x you

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photogirl894 · 3 years

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"Sun and Rain"

Chapter 30

"In the Crosshairs"

A "Bad Batch" fanfic!

Pairing: Hunter x fem OC, Echo (more best friend pairing)

Warning: some violence, brief mentions of blood

A/N: gosh, I'm sorry this one took so long! I don't know why I had such a hard time with it! I also kinda love and hate myself for this one...you might see why by the end 😜 Hope y'all enjoy, my lovelies!!

Taglist: @the-sad-batch , @nimata-beroya , @green-arrows-of-karamel , @mrskenobi677 , @ladydiomede , @ladykatakuri , @d1n0-dan , @sammi9498 , @darthzero22

《 Chapter 29

》 Chapter 31

All chapters

Explanation: Kimber and Hunter are ready to meet back up with the rest of the Bad Batch...but not before encountering a little trouble beforehand.

Kimber felt like a whole new woman when she awoke.

She felt like she was floating on the clouds of Bespin, letting the wind just carry her away. She had no idea it was possible to feel this way; to be happier than she already thought she was. Though, as she turned to look at the handsome, sleeping Clone Sergeant beside her, she knew that it was indeed possible all thanks to him. Not only was Hunter the reason that she now had a new purpose, a new family and a place to belong, but he was the reason she knew what it meant to truly love and be loved in return. He had given her everything. In turn, she had given him her heart and, as of the previous night, her body and soul.

Since then, she now felt closer to him and more connected with him than ever. Not only had their physical intimacy felt just amazing in and of itself, but it brought their relationship and their love to even greater heights. Looking upon him, she knew he was truly a part of her now just as she was a part of him. He was her home; her safe haven. There were just no words good enough in any language in the galaxy to accurately describe just how much she revered, admired, adored and deeply loved her Sergeant Hunter.

She faced him in the bed, reached out and ever so lightly brushed her fingertips along his cheek, moving aside a couple stray locks of his hair. He was so serene in his sleep. This was a rare sight, seeing him in a state of pure calm and peace without any worry on his mind. She gazed at his face intently, wanting to remember this image of him forever.

It was then Hunter's eyes fluttered open, having sensed the touch of her skin on his, and he immediately smiled as her face was the first thing he saw upon waking up.

"Good morning, my Sergeant," Kimber greeted him.

"Good morning, my love," he sighed before taking her hand that was on his cheek and bringing it to his mouth, pressing a gentle kiss to her palm.

Kimber leaned forward and gently kissed Hunter, her lips feeling softer than ever. “I’m surprised your brothers haven’t contacted us yet,” she commented to him as she pulled back.

He grinned and replied, “That’s because, after my call with Commander Cody yesterday, I turned my commlink off and then I did the same with yours after we ate.” Then, to her slight surprise, he took her shoulders and pushed her onto her back, climbing over top of her with a devious grin on his face. “I wasn’t going to have anything interrupted for a third time.”

With an amused chuckle, she shook her head and said back, “Well, that explains a lot then.”

In seconds, his hand cupped the nape of her neck and he brought her lips to his in a passionate kiss while her arms encircled his waist and back, pulling him down closer. She moaned pleasantly into his mouth, which caused him to moan huskily in turn. Her hands ran up and down his back, her fingers digging into his bare skin.

He broke the kiss and growled, “Stars, Kimber, you drive my senses crazy!”

In response, she snickered and said, “I’ll take that as a challenge, Hunter.” Then she sat up just enough to start kissing up and down his neck, which withdrew a deep groan from him. She chuckled against his skin. “I’ll bet your senses just love this even more.”

He just moaned with pleasure in response. Just as he decided to start smothering her lips with his own again, the holopad on their end table started to beep.

While Kimber started chuckling, Hunter pulled away and groaned in annoyance, "You've got to be kidding me...!"

"Of all things...!" she giggled as she rolled out from under him and hopped off the bed. She quickly pulled her chest binder and dress on and walked over to the table, activating the holopad.

A hologram of the innkeeper appeared and he said, "I have a message for Kimber Sallaros."

"That's me," she told him.

"I have someone here who would like to speak with you. They're waiting for you outside the inn."

"Did they give a name or what they wanted?"

"No, ma'am. Just that they wanted you to meet them outside."

"All right. Thank you." Kimber then tapped the holopad and turned the projection off, now a bit puzzled at the innkeeper's message.

Pulling the bottoms of his blacks on, Hunter said to her, "That was strange."

"Yeah...but I guess I should still go see what that's all about," she replied as she started pulling her leggings and boots on.

"I'll come with you," he suggested.

However, she shook her head. "No, it's okay, Hunter. I'll be fine. I imagine it might be someone who heard me sing at the parlor yesterday. I'll be okay. I shouldn't be long. You finish getting yourself ready and then we can meet back up with the boys."

"Can't we stay a little longer?" Hunter groaned. "The boys can wait."

Kimber smirked at him. "Would you rather they come barging in here looking for us because they haven't heard from us for hours?"

He grimaced, which is exactly how she knew he would react. She knew full well that was the last thing he would want.

“All right,” he relented.

She walked over to him, kissed his cheek and said, “I’ll be back. Don’t miss me too much.”

As she began to walk away, however, he took her wrist and proceeded to gently push her against the wall, pinning her wrists to the wall and kissing her fiercely with what desire was left in him after having been interrupted yet again. Her legs nearly buckled beneath her as she was still getting used to his more passionate advances, but she returned his kiss fervently. He clearly wasn't ready to let her leave yet and she couldn't help but chuckle quietly as she relented and they continued to kiss each other.

"Hunter...," she lightly chided him, eventually pulling away.

Begrudgingly, he let go of her wrists, stepped back and said to her, “I’ll be counting down the seconds until you return."

A smile crept up on her face as she remembered he had said the same thing before she had gone on a flight with Tech back on Bestine. It had been sweet then and it was even sweeter now. She stole one last glance at him before exiting the room and making her way down to the lobby of the inn.

The innkeeper saw her coming and pointed to the doors, reiterating that the person who wanted to see her was waiting outside. Before leaving, she also informed him that she and Hunter would be checking out soon and he gave her an affirming nod.

As Kimber stepped outside into the long corridor of the Kuat ring, she looked around and was surprised to see there wasn’t really anyone around. She knew it was maybe a little early for some people to be up and about, but she figured there had to be some activity. Maybe the person who wanted to see her was waiting around the nearby corner, she thought. She walked towards one of the corners, looking to see if there was anyone there.

All of a sudden, both of her arms were grabbed from behind her and just as she was about to scream, something was put over her mouth to silence her. She looked to her sides and found two bigger Kuati men were grabbing her and dragging her somewhere. They were attempting to kidnap her. She tried struggling and pulling out of their grip, but they were stronger than her. She tried kicking at their legs, but they paid it no mind as they continued pulling her along. Deep down, she started to panic. Even if she got away, she didn't have her commlink to contact Hunter or anyone else to come help. She didn't have any of her weapons either. The one blaster she had kept for the mission was back inside the inn.

The two men pulled her down a ways, kicking and fighting, and then ducked into an alleyway, forcing her up against a wall. When Kimber looked up, she found herself face to face once again with Carson, the Clone-hating Rodian who was giving her a cocky grin. Upon seeing him, she shot him a glare as then one of the other men pulled her mouth guard away.

“Hello again," Carson said to her in Huttese. "I believe you and I have unfinished business.”

Kimber scoffed, “Do we? Because last I checked, I beat you and sent you running with your tail between your legs.”

“You humiliated me," he stated.

“You did that to yourself," she shot back. Then she looked to her left and then to her right at the two burly men subduing her. "I see you had to bring extra hands. What, you weren’t man enough to fight me on your own again?” she said to antagonize him.

Carson looked to the guard on her right, gave him a nod and just then, the man swung one of his fists straight into her stomach. She doubled over as far as she could go, gasping for air.

"Guess he's going to play dirty," she thought to herself.

The Rodian approached her as the guards forcefully pulled her back up and his eyes caught sight of the necklace around her neck. He reached out and grabbed it in his hand, looking it over carefully.

“Did your Clone give you this?” he inquired, a noticeable sneer in his voice when he said the word "Clone".

“None of your business," she stated firmly, unwilling to give him any satisfaction.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” He then clutched it tightly in his hand and yanked it forward, snapping the cord in half against her neck and pulling it off.

“No! Give that back!” she cried, pushing against the guards' hold on her as she watched Carson starting to walk away slowly with Hunter's necklace.

He turned back over his shoulder to look at her. “Only after you apologize to me.”

Kimber's eyebrows raised and her eyes widened in disbelief. Was he serious? He wronged her and he expected her to apologize? Surely, he had to be joking!

“You want me to apologize for you acting like a prick and insulting my family?" she questioned. Then she scoffed again and rolled her eyes. "Not a chance!”

“For assaulting me in the parlor!” he tried correcting her in frustration, turning to fully face her.

“You deserved that, Carson!" she exclaimed. "You don’t get to throw around insults and lies and not expect someone to retaliate!”

Her head suddenly snapped to the side as he then thrust the back of his hand across her face, a sharp sting irritating the skin of her cheek. She inhaled sharply, fighting the pain and refusing to show weakness in front of the one who struck her.

“You need to learn your place, woman," he told her, his tone authoritative.

That statement sparked a fire of fury within her. He had a lot of nerve to say something like that to her. She looked up at him, an icy glare in her eyes while simultaneously smirking defiantly at him.

She replied to him in Huttese and a dark tone, “I already know my place. It’s between you and the Clones.”

Carson scoffed at her. “You’re a fool. They’re not your family. They’re not even real people.”

That made Kimber snap.

In reaction, she reared back and threw her head forward, headbutting him hard in the face and causing him to stagger back. However, she'd never done anything like that before, so now she had a pounding pain in her head and her vision was blurring. That probably wasn't a smart idea.

Carson cried out an order to his men and one of them connected his fist with her stomach again, this time a lot of harder so that when she flopped over and gasped for air, only a choked sound emerged. The two men released her arms and she clutched at her stomach. While she was temporarily incapacitated, Carson backhanded her once again across the face and she cried out in pain. The guards withdrew vibrobatons from their belts and started beating her, striking her in the legs first to get her down on her knees, and then on her back and shoulders.

Her body and senses were all overcome with pain as the three men started overpowering her. Flashes of her captivity and the Tuskens abusing her appeared in her mind. She was defenseless and, to her great detriment, she hadn't been trained on how to handle multiple people in a fight. It had only ever been one on one. The guards were both stronger than her and Carson was taking hits when he could, but was mostly watching, enjoying watching her suffer as she continued screaming and crying out in agony.

Kimber was overwhelmed; she couldn't see a way out as they kept weakening and hurting her, her body slumping to the ground. Why had she told Hunter to stay behind? Why hadn't she brought him with her? She was going to be beaten badly or killed and left there...and he would have no idea what had happened to her.

She was trapped.

Just then, there was the sound of a blaster shot and a bolt went right between the two guards' heads. The two of them and Carson ceased beating Kimber and whipped around in the direction the bolt came from. Kimber was so overcome with pain that she didn't attempt to look.

Then she was surprised to hear a smooth, snakelike voice that she knew well speak with palpable anger, “Touch her again...and you’ll die where you stand.”

She craned her neck enough to see her partner standing at the edge of the alleyway, his sniper rifle aimed at her assailants and an angry grimace on his face.

“Crosshair!” she cried out weakly.

“Another Clone?" Carson cried out, irritated. You’ve got to be--”

Crosshair suddenly fired a shot at his feet, scaring him and cutting his exclamation short. “I don’t speak Huttese," Crosshair stated, unamused. Then he aimed his rifle again and threatened the three men, "You have two seconds to run...and I won’t miss.”

"Abomination!" Carson yelled at him before suddenly withdrawing a blaster from under his coat.

"No!" cried Kimber.

There was the sound of a gunshot...and then there was a smoking hole in Carson's chest.

The Rodian stood in place, stunned, for a moment before his blaster fell from his hand, he dropped to his knees and then collapsed to the ground, dead.

Kimber couldn't believe it. Crosshair had just killed him.

He then gave the two other men a threatening death glare that would've rivaled the sharpness of a vibroblade, wordlessly warning them that they would be next should they try anything more. They seemed to get the hint from seeing the dead body of their leader and took off running in fear right away out the other side of the alley.

Once they were gone, Kimber collapsed all the way to the ground. Crosshair immediately rushed over to her, set his rifle on the ground and dropped to his knees in front of her to pull her up, setting her up against the wall and keeping a hold on her shoulders.

“Are you all right? Look at me," he asked with concern, gently taking her face in his hands and looking her over.

She looked up at him and found him gazing at her with worry and fear in his eyes that she'd never seen from him before.

“I’m okay," she told him, not wanting to worry him any further.

“How badly did they hurt you?” he then inquired, his anger returning at the thought of her being hurt.

She nonchalantly shook her head. “It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

Crosshair tightened his hold on her head just slightly and told her sternly. "Don't lie to me, Kimber."

Her eyes shot up. He had used her name again. That alone told her that he was more than worried about her, which was true. Crosshair had heard screams and cries of pain and, once he realized they were hers, his blood had run chill. Once he saw what the men were doing to her, his only instinct was to kill. They were hurting his partner; the men were lucky he didn't shoot them on sight, but he had held back for Kimber's sake, thinking she wouldn't want to see him kill them in front of her.

As he checked her over, there didn't seem to be any visible signs of injury, but he did see some blood on her bottom lip. On instinct, he reached up and carefully brushed the blood away from her lip with his gloved thumb.

“We can’t let Hunter see you like this," he said.

His tenderness with her in that moment was so unexpected and it touched her immensely. "Oh, Crosshair!" she cried out. With the shock of everything that had happened starting to wear off and feeling overwhelmed by Crosshair's gentle attention, Kimber suddenly broke down into tears and threw her arms around his neck, clinging to him for dear life as she cried into his shoulder.

Crosshair stiffened briefly at her hugging him, but then forgot all about his initial discomfort as he heard her crying and felt her body trembling and he wrapped his arms around her, offering what comfort he could.

"You're all right, sunshine. You're safe now," he consoled her.

He knew normally she was a strong woman who could handle a lot, but this had been a different situation. He could see no other weapons anywhere, so he knew she had been defenseless and unarmed. He had seen the stature of the men who had taken her and could tell they had outmatched her in strength. Unfortunately, they'd had her at a great disadvantage and that had to have been frightening for her. That and he wondered if the harm she had suffered at their hands had reminded her of her trauma from Tatooine with the Tuskens, hence why she was now weeping and shaking like a scared child in his arms. His arms pulled her a little closer, trying to comfort her as best as he knew how, holding her tightly yet gently. Though he kept his eyes and ears pealed for any signs of movement or danger.

After a few moments, Kimber's crying began to cease and her breathing became steady as she calmed down. When she pulled away, Crosshair didn't say a word, but he reached up and brushed a couple stray tears from her cheeks. In that moment, she then flipped around with a concerned look on her face and then was crawling over to the dead Rodian's body, prying open one of his hands. Crosshair watched her curiously and then was surprised to see her pull out a Republic credit necklace that he recognized; one he hadn't seen in a long time: Hunter's necklace. She then proceeded to fix a part where it had snapped and then put it around her neck. Seeing this, Crosshair knew immediately what it meant: while they had been gone, Hunter had given Kimber his necklace and, in a way, promised himself to her. There was probably more to it than that, but that of course was between the two of them and wasn't any of Crosshair's business. He knew how special that necklace was to his brother and to see it around her neck told him everything. She really had stolen his heart completely. He was just glad Hunter had finally stopped pining for her from a distance and had acted on his feelings, whenever that had been. It was about time the fool had listened to him.

Kimber looked up at Crosshair and saw the way he was looking at her, looking at the necklace and then her face. The smallest hint of a knowing smile etched up on his mouth and he gave her a nod. Something about that made her smile just a little, too, and feel a bit more reassured. Crosshair grabbed his rifle, stood up and then held out a hand to Kimber. She took it and he pulled her to her feet, bracing her underneath her arms as she was still a bit shaky. He looked her over once more, peering peculiarly at her face and then her neck, but then he acted like everything was fine.

Once she was up and steady, he looked down at the dead Rodian and gave his leg a kick. “I never would’ve expected Kuat to be a place where random thugs mug a woman on the street," he said with a brief sneer.

“He...wasn’t just a random thug," she explained. When he looked back at her, she clarified, "I had a run-in with this guy yesterday and he was trying to get even.”

“What happened?” he asked.

“We went to a bar yesterday and, after Hunter had stepped out for a moment, this Rodian came over to me," she told him. "He had seen me come in with Hunter and started spouting off horrible things about Clones. Needless to say, I taught him a lesson in front of everyone in the parlor and, well...he didn’t like that.”

Crosshair smirked at her in response, impressed. “Well done, sunshine.”

Kimber grinned slightly back. Then she asked the question that was on her mind: “Crosshair...what are you doing here?”

“I came to get you and Hunter," he answered. "The rest of the squad is back at the ship in the landing bay waiting for you. It’s a good thing I came when I did.”

"Yes, it was." Then she laid a hand on Crosshair's arm, giving him a serious glance. "Please don't tell Hunter about what they did to me. I don't want him to worry," she pleaded.

He put his rifle on his back, gave her a sly look and stuck a toothpick in his mouth. "Tell him about what?"

His response gave her relief and she gave him a small smile of gratitude. She knew she could trust him to keep her secret.

"We should get you back to the ship before they come looking for the Rodian," he said, taking out his commlink as they both started walking and he kept a hold on her waist to support her. Then he spoke into it, "Hunter, come in." He waited for a few seconds. "Hunter, do you copy?" There was still no response for a moment and he rolled his eyes. "Ugh, I've been trying to reach him all morning."

"He turned his commlink off. He didn't want us to be disturbed last night," she told him.

Crosshair groaned in annoyance before shortly after, they heard Hunter's voice on the comm, "What is it, Crosshair?"

"It's about time," Crosshair spat before telling him, "You had better get to the ship quickly."

There was a brief pause."What did you do?" Hunter asked in a monotone voice.

"Does it matter? You need to meet back up with us now."

"I can't. Kimber left the inn and she hasn't come back yet."

"Don't worry, Hunter. She's with me."

"What? How is she with--?"

"Just get back to the ship!" Crosshair finally said, annoyed before switching off Hunter's frequency and then saying, "Tech, get the ship ready to leave immediately. We're on our way."

"On it," they heard Tech reply.

After putting the commlink away, Crosshair turned to Kimber and asked, his demeanor softening, "Are you all right to run?"

"I think so," she answered. After walking for the past couple minutes, some of Kimber's strength was beginning to come back, despite some of the lingering pain and soreness.

His hand moved from her waist as he said, "Then let's go."

The two of them took off running through the Kuat Drive Yards ring, only encountering a small number of people out and about as they went. Before long, they could see the landing bay ahead of them and could hear the Marauder's engines already running. Crosshair slowed down a little to let Kimber get ahead of him and get into the ship first.

Kimber ran up the ramp up into the Marauder and nearly collapsed into the adjacent wall before getting into a nearby chair next to where Wrecker was sitting. In front of her, as per usual, sat Tech and Echo in the pilot's seats.

"Welcome back, Kimber," Wrecker greeted her pleasantly.

"Thanks, Wrecker," she replied, slightly out of breath.

Echo spun around in his chair and smiled gladly at seeing her. "Glad you're back," he said to her. Then he noticed that only she and Crosshair were on the ship. "Where's Hunter?"

"He's still at the inn, but he should be on his way shortly," she replied.

"He already is," stated Tech, looking down at his datapad.

They all glanced at him curiously.

"You know that, how?" inquired Echo.

Tech turned his chair to face everyone and said as a matter of factly, "I still have the duplicated camera frequency from the Kuat security headquarters, which includes the outside feed. I saw Hunter leaving the inn. I also monitored Crosshair's movements and saw him veer into an alleyway where he shot someone."

Both Kimber and Crosshair went wide-eyed hearing that Tech had seen what had happened. Then both Wrecker and Echo looked surprised, too, as they looked at Crosshair.

"Is that why we're leaving in a hurry?" asked Wrecker.

"I was protecting her," Crosshair replied, gesturing to Kimber. "She was in danger."

Just then, they heard footsteps running up the ramp and Hunter appeared, hitting the control panel to the ramp to bring it up.

Seeing him finally there, Crosshair turned to Tech and told him, "Go now!"

Tech gave him a nod and pulled the ship up from the ground. Within seconds, they flew out of the landing bay of the ring, leaving the Kuat Drive Yards behind.

"Does anyone want to explain to me what's going on?" Hunter demanded, coming up into the main cabin of the ship.

"Crosshair shot someone," said Tech over his shoulder.

In response, Crosshair glared at Tech for ratting him out and then turned to find Hunter giving him an "Are you kidding me?" look.

"He was defending me, Hunter," Kimber clarified. It seemed like she was going to have to tell him what happened after all.

However, Crosshair took over and told Hunter, "I had come looking for you two when I heard a commotion and saw someone was arguing with her outside. She was doing fine until I saw him draw a blaster and I saw she was unarmed. I reacted on instinct and shot him."

Kimber looked up at him, taken aback a little. Crosshair had lied to Hunter about what had happened so he could still keep her secret; so Hunter wouldn't be so worried.

Hunter stole a look at Kimber as if to confirm what Crosshair said and she just gave him a nod.

"Shooting someone and running will make you look guilty," he then said to Crosshair. "They're going to think you murdered him."

"Technically, that's not entirely true," Tech interjected. "There were cameras in that area, so if the Kuat security were to check, they will see that Crosshair's actions were done entirely in self-defense."

It took a brief moment for Hunter to process everything. It had all happened so fast. He had just finished getting his armor back on when he had turned on his commlink and heard Crosshair's voice. The next thing he knew, he was running from the inn to the ship. Now, suddenly being told that Crosshair had shot someone was not what he was expecting to hear. However, he peered around behind Crosshair to where Kimber was sitting and moved around to face her.

"Are you all right?" he asked her, laying a hand softly on her shoulder.

She nodded. "I'm fine."

"Who was it?"

"It was the Rodian from last night."

He snickered. "I guess he just couldn't take the hit you gave him, could he?"

"I guess not. It was good that Crosshair came when he did."

He turned back to his brother. Despite his initial irritation at hearing he'd shot someone, Hunter couldn't deny that he was glad Crosshair had been there, especially since it was the Rodian that had been involved. He had saved Kimber from what could have been a worse situation and that's all that mattered to him.

"Thank you," he said softly.

Crosshair laid a hand on Hunter's shoulder. "She's not just yours to protect, Hunter. She's part of the squad; we all protect her." Then he looked down at her. "I don't regret what I did and I would do it again a thousand times over."

Kimber smiled gratefully at him.

"Well, she's safe and that's what matters," said Echo. "Now, we have something more important to discuss."

When he had everyone's attention, he then smirked, looking between Kimber and Hunter. "Did you two enjoy your time away together?"

The two of them exchanged timid looks and blushed a little. This was going to be a long flight.

After a few hours of flying and Hunter and Kimber filling everyone in on the things that had happened during their time on Kuat, the Bad Batch decided that, since they had no pending missions again, they would take time again on a nearby planet and determined Alderaan was a good choice and it was just a couple more hours away. During this time, Kimber took the opportunity to put her hair back into her signature braid and to change out of her Kuat dress and back into her Bad Batch armor. Despite loving the dress, she had indeed missed the familiarity of her armor. To her, it just reminded her that she was where she belonged. It gave her the feeling of safety and home.

They traveled a little longer until they reached the planet and found a remote area to land their ship. It was evening time when they landed and the sky was a lovely orange and red color. As they all dismounted the ship, Hunter brought out a heater and Wrecker went and gathered some logs for them to sit on as they partook in their evening meal of rations.

Once they were finished, Crosshair stood up, hoisted up his rifle and stated, "I'm going to scout the area." He turned to Kimber. "Care to help?"

Kimber smirked. Over time, "scouting the area" had become their secret code phrase, meaning Crosshair was going to go watch the sunset. While he did indeed actually do some scouting, it didn't take very long for him and so he took advantage of that time to go do his secret hobby. Ever since the first time she had followed him and he had let her join him, Kimber had started going with him a little more, still following after him, until eventually Crosshair started asking her to go with her on the "scouting" initially. He liked her company and sneaking off to watch the sunsets on any given night, especially on a new planet, had become their thing; their shared activity that they did together.

"Sure, I'll go with you," she replied, taking up her own rifle.

He gave her a nod and started walking away.

She looked to Hunter and gave him a sweet smile, squeezing his hand gently to indicate she would be back soon. He returned the smile and the gesture in understanding as she stood up from the log and followed after Crosshair.

The two of them made their way up into the nearby foothills, keeping an eye out for any movement nearby. There was some wildlife they saw in the distance, but nothing threatening. They went up further until they found a big enough cliffside for them to observe the setting sun. They set their weapons aside and sat themselves down at the edge of the cliff, watching the horizon.

After a couple minutes of silence, Crosshair turned to Kimber and asked, “Glad to be back?”

She smiled and nodded. “I am," she answered. "I did miss you boys, even though Hunter and I had an enjoyable time.”

He then smirked deviously and more wider than usual as he said back, “I can see that you did.”

Puzzled, she tilted her head at him. He then tapped the side of his neck with two fingers while still maintaining eye contact. She reached up to her neck, wondering what he was implying, but then seeing the teasing look in his eye, it dawned on her and her eyes shot open wide.

“Is there a--?”

Crosshair just smirked some more and even snickered a little.

Mortified, she turned away, her face going hot like she was back under the twin suns. There apparently was a mark on her neck from her night of passion with Hunter!

Then she heard Crosshair say beside her, “Lucky for you, I don’t think the others noticed before because your hair covered it up...but it certainly didn’t escape my attention.”

Now that explained why he had looked at her curiously back in the alley. “Blast your keen eyesight!” she exclaimed, still so embarrassed.

He chuckled some more, but gave her a reassuring pat on the back and didn't say anything more. He hadn't had a moment to properly tease her a little about what he'd seen and now that he had, that's all he was going to do. That told him enough about her time with Hunter and everything else, he didn't need to know. That and seeing her blush was satisfactory enough for him and he wasn't going to make her feel more embarrassed, so he stayed quiet while she regained her composure.

A moment passed as they kept watching the sunset before Crosshair spoke up, “You know...even for only a day...things weren’t the same without you here.”

She stole a look at him. “For everyone or just for you?”

He side-eyed her briefly, but didn't say a word.

“Crosshair...did you miss me?” she inquired further, grinning at him.

It was his turn to feel timid and he simply grunted in response, the tips of his ears going slightly pink.

She snickered. "How touching," she said, droning her voice a little similarly to his.

That got him to look at her, though the corner of his mouth twitched ever so slightly upward.

“Are you mocking me?” he questioned.

Kimber smiled innocently. “I would never. Imitation is the highest form of flattery.”

He eyed her suspiciously, but he still couldn't hold back the semblance of a proud grin. "Your impression needs some work," he teased.

"Hey, I thought I did pretty well!" she declared, elbowing him in the arm. Then her tone softened as she then said to him, "I didn't say anything before because I knew you wouldn't want me to cause a fuss...but I have to thank you."

"You don't have to thank me for saving you," he said back.

"I know I don't. That's not what I'm thanking you for," she replied. He eyed her curiously and she explained, "I heard it was your idea for you guys to run off and give Hunter and me the day yesterday. I never took you for a romantic."

He frowned slightly. "I did it so you two wouldn't be so lovesick for each other around the rest of us."

Kimber grinned and shook her head. She knew there was more to his reasoning than that, but he just didn't want to admit it.

"Were we that obvious?" she asked.

"To most of us, yes," he answered. "Though, I knew of Hunter's feelings for you from the beginning." Crosshair then shot her a warning look and pointed a finger at her. "If you tell him anything about my involvement with yesterday, I will deny it."

Kimber grinned even more. "Deny what?" she asked, emulating his response to her from back on Kuat.

His lips twitched up again in amusement, realizing what she had done. "How is it you know me so well?" he inquired.

With a shrug, she smiled sweetly and said in reply, "I've spent almost every day with you for weeks. I feel like I've learned to read you pretty well. Besides, we're partners. It's part of our job to be able to read each other. Though, just when I think I know you, you surprise me with what you did yesterday."

"Just keeping you on your toes, sunshine," he said back.

Then she reached out and took his hand, catching him off guard. "Thank you, Crosshair."

His expression softened as he looked intently into her eyes and gave her a sincere nod.

"What would I do without you?" she then questioned aloud.

"You won't have to find out...because I'm not going anywhere," he told her.

"Is that a promise?" she asked. When he turned away without saying anything, she nudged him. "Come on, tell me!"

He sighed. "Are you really going to make me say it?"

"It's not that I don't believe you. I just want to hear you say it out loud," she said to him.

With a roll of his eyes, he then said, "I promise."

Satisfied, Kimber grinned at him and then proceeded to lift up his hand that she held, raised his arm up above and behind her head and pulled it around her shoulders. Once she let go of his hand, she nestled up closer to him and laid her head on his shoulder. Crosshair remained motionless, taken aback by what she was doing. This was new to him. He knew she was comfortable with him, but she hadn't done this before. He wasn't sure what to do, so he kept his open hand out away from her arm.

Rolling his eyes again and sighing quietly, he commented, "The things I do for you, sunshine."

She chuckled. "You wouldn't keep doing things for me if you didn't adore me, Crosshair."

Crosshair at first didn't know how to respond. He looked down at what he could see of Kimber's smiling face as she gazed out at the sun, her amber eyes glimmering brightly in the glow of the twilight. In that instant, he smiled to himself and he relaxed, letting his hand come to her arm and he gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze as they both continued to watch the sun go down.

He knew she was right: he did adore her...and he would do anything for her. He had risked his life for her before and that day, he had killed someone to protect her. Kimber was his partner; together, they were the snipers and the eyes in the sky. She was his most trusted friend, his confidant, his sunshine. His nickname for her had become more than just that; it had become part of her identity with him as she was the only ray of light that existed in his life.

Now, he could no longer imagine the squad without her. She was one of them. She belonged with them. He had seen that and known that almost from the very beginning. Looking back, he had never realized just how truly important the poor desert-dweller woman they had saved would become to them and to him. She was Hunter's true love and his other half in every way. She was Echo's best friend and understood him in ways no one else would ever be able to. She enjoyed Tech's many ramblings and indulged and even took part in his passion of research. She encouraged Wrecker's love for demolition and explosives and made him feel intelligent for knowing so much about them. Then, to Crosshair, she was the one he could rely on to always have his back and she somehow understood him, too, in ways even his brothers didn't. She could read him even when he didn't want be readable. Her compassion and love for all of them was unparalleled, especially after hearing her tell the story of how she defended the Clones the previous day against the Rodian he had shot. That had struck something inside of him. He was proud of her not only for holding her own and standing up to that creature, but for how fervent she was in defending all Clones and denying the Rodian's claims. This simple woman from Tatooine was so much more than he ever imagined she would be.

It occurred to Crosshair that, on that fateful day, he hadn't even wanted to go to Tatooine in the first place...but looking back, he was more than grateful that they had. His life and all their lives had changed forever that day and it had definitely been for the better. None of them had realized that a piece had been missing from their squad and they had found it in her, a slave woman they had rescued. Hunter's senses had somehow led them to someone they never knew they needed. Now, she was a meaningful and valued member of their squad because of both her skills and her heart. She truly had the spirit, the courage and the conviction of a Clone and that only furthered the reasons why she fit in so well with the Bad Batch.

In that moment, Crosshair seemed to fully realize what Kimber was to him. Yes, she was his partner and friend, but now, there was more to what they had than that.

She was his sister.

The world around him seemed to change at this revelation and it clarifed everything he was feeling. There was no other way to explain what was between them: the care, the banter, the trust and the closeness. Kimber was like a sister to him and he would continue to care for her and look after her as such. Maybe one day, he would tell her, but for right now, that was for his knowledge alone. He figured she might think of him as a brother, but he wasn't entirely sure. Even so, he knew she still cared about him a great deal and that was good enough for him.

Despite that, Crosshair knew he would hold fast to his relationship with Kimber for the rest of his life as they both shared and enjoyed that moment of watching the sunset together.

#star wars the bad batch #the bad batch #bad batch hunter #bad batch fanfic #hunter x oc fic #sun and rain fanfic

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anakqin · 3 years

Text

illicit affairs

word count: 2.1K

anakin x crosshair (skycross)

platonic love (maybe?)

━━━━━━━━━ ♡ ━━━━━━━━━

part one

"Captain Cody called us on a mission, boys, we're heading to Anaxes," Hunter said in a casual tone as he changed the ship's course to the planet.

"And what mission would that be, Hunter?" asked Tech, while typing something on his datapad.

"I don't know yet, Captain didn't give too much detail. He just said it's a mission with Captain Rex and General Skywalker."

"General Skywalker" So many times Crosshair has heard of the great Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and his successful missions against the Separists across the Galaxy. Crosshair has often wondered what it would be like to work side by side with Skywalker on a mission, but he never thought it would be possible, given Skywalker's fame.

Crosshair wasn't much a conversationalist, or a person who shows his feelings, although he loved his brothers and would do anything for them, Crosshair was simply more reserved and preferred to be alone with his thoughts. No one but himself knew about his curiosity about Anakin, and it was better that way.

Apparently, Crosshair's long-awaited moment had arrived. He still didn't know anything about the mission, only that it would be with Skywalker, but how much he would be involved in the mission, or even if he would actually be there, for now, Crosshair had no idea. He chose not to ask questions and just wait for their arrival in Anaxes.

"Hey Crosshair?" A loud, excited voice called him from the other side of the ship.

"What was it?" Crosshair asked after a few seconds. His gruff voice echoed through the ship as Wrecker laughed.

"We've been calling you for a while Crosshair, is everything alright?" Hunter's voice was calm. He was now in front of Crosshair looking curiously at his younger brother, who had a grumpy face looking at him.

"I'm fine, Hunter." Crosshair said as he put a toothpick in his mouth and leaned back against the bench he was sitting on.

"Great, let's land, get ready."

Crosshair wasn't prepared, but he didn't let on. He was only a few minutes away from meeting General Skywalker, and his heart felt like it was going to leap out of his mouth at any moment. He took a long breath, and tried to remain calm and wait for the landing.

The ship landed in a hurried and disorganized on the airstrip at the Anaxes Fort.

Crosshair got up nervously from his seat but trying to maintain his posture. He put on his helmet and could let out a long breath again. He felt his hands sweat cold, and his heart race, he was finally just steps away from meeting General Skywalker.

The ship's door opened and his brothers walked towards it. Crosshair took the sniper and followed them.

Crosshair exited the ship and walked down the ramp, stopping just behind the group. His curious eyes searched for the General. Crosshair didn't know what he looked like, after all, he'd never seen him, but figured he was accompanying Rex and Cody. His hands were sweating beneath her armored glove, her heart pounding like never before in her life. Crosshair didn't quite understand what was going on, these sensations were new to him. How could he feel all this for someone he didn't know?

While he was lost in thought, he saw three figures approaching. Two of them were clones, Cody was one of them, and assumed Captain Rex was the other. Among them, a figure that wasn't a clone, because of his bearing, was a Jedi. Was he General Skywalker? A wave of thoughts invaded Crosshair's mind, he would finally meet the Jedi known across the galaxy, he would finally work with him on a mission, but why was he so nervous this time? After all, it was just another mission like so many others they had participated in before.

His brothers removed the helmet, and before he did the same, Crosshair gulped and removed it as well. "Crosshair what's wrong with you?" he thought to himself.

The three approached the group.

"Cody, long time brother, glad to see you again" Hunter said approaching the three of them.

"So these are your friends?" Anakin asked as he watched the group, with a friendly smile on his face.

"This is Clone Force 99, also known as Bad Batch." Said Cody, to Anakin and Rex. "This is Captain Rex and General Anakin Skywalker, boys"

"Nice to meet you" said Hunter and started to introduce his brothers one by one, to the trio.

Crosshair wasn't really paying attention to what Hunter was saying, he only heard voices in the background. His attention was fully directed to General Skywalker.

So that was him. Crosshair was somehow mesmerized by Anakin's beauty, long shoulder-length brown hair blowing in the wind, the serious posture of a general, arms crossed and eyes intent on the newly arrived clones.

"Crosshair doesn't say much, but if you need to hit a target a mile away, he's the guy!" Hunter said introducing his younger brother to the three in front of him. The words woke Crosshair from his thoughts of the General, who was now staring at him with a slight smile on his face. Crosshair felt his stomach lurch as Skywalker looked directly at him, and he froze, couldn't say a word, just popped the toothpick into his mouth again as he stared back at the general.

"So you don't like to talk very much?" Anakin's voice was soft but firm. The smile on his face was something Crosshair would never forget. Crosshair's heart sped up again and he felt his throat go dry.

"I.." Crosshair started to speak when he was interrupted by Wrecker

"Oh Crosshair doesn't say much, but he's good guy, isn't truth Crosshair?" Wrecker slapped his brother on the shoulder so hard that he fell a couple of steps forward, inching closer to Anakin.

"Well, glad to meet you guys. Can Hunter join us so we can go over some mission details?" Rex said as he turned to walk back to the base.

"I think it would be better if everyone followed, Rex so we've already talked to everyone at once and there's no doubt about the mission" Anakin's voice again was steady, and Crosshair could hear him talk for hours, was hoping he would introduce the mission and explained everything in details.

The group arrived at the base and Rex and Anakin opened a holomap and explained the mission to them. It was a stealth mission. Rex suspected that one of his brothers from 501st batallion was alive and in control of the separatists. The mission was simple, track the signal, and rescue his brother, Echo.

"Well then I guess it's time for we to left, guys, but first, can I talk to you for a second?" Hunter said towards Anakin and Rex.

"Sure" Said Rex in a serious tone.

"We're waiting on the ship" Tech said and the group walked back to the ship. Crosshair looked once again to Anakin before leaving.

"Well, I think it might be a trap. I'm in, but I still suspect it's a trap to get us." Hunter was confused about the mission, he wanted to believe that Echo was really alive, but he couldn't trust that Separatists would keep a clone alive.

"I understand Hunter, but I have strong reasons to believe that. I appreciate your help." Rex was sure of his position, and he wouldn't change his mind that easily.

"Oh Rex, can we go do that little thing now?" Anakin said as he looked directly at Rex.

"Oh sir, we don't have time for that right now" Rex was confused, clearly not wanting to contratic Anakin but was really eager to go after his brother.

"Yes, we do" Anakin's voice was strong, as he arched an eyebrow at Rex and gave a slight nod. He wouldn't change his mind.

Hunter was very confused about what was going on there, but just said goodbye and that he would wait on the ship, for them to left.

"Boys, I just witnessed a funny scene over there with Captain Rex and General Skywalker," Hunter said as he entered the ship. Everyone was seated awaiting his return, and upon hearing Hunter's voice, all attentions turned to him.

"And what scene was that, Hunter?" Crosshair was curious because from the tone Hunter mentioned, it wasn't common.

"Ahh even Crosshair wants to know, go Hunter, speak" Wrecker said as he punched Crosshair on the shoulder.

"It wasn't a big deal guys, but they were acting weird, with little secrets, it looks like General Skywalker wanted to do something but Captain Rex wasn't really into it." Hunter chuckled, and the others just mumble some words that Crosshair didn't understand.

"Well, if it was their thing and they didn't tell you, then they clearly didn't want you to be involved" Crosshair was serious as he spoke and stared at Hunter, his voice was harsh, and even he didn't quite understand what he was feeling. He took the toothpick out of his mouth and left the ship without looking at the others.

"What's wrong with him?" Wrecker looked confused and watched Crosshair exit the ship in front of him.

"He's been acting weird since Hunter told us about the mission, but if we know Crosshair, he won't say anything" Tech spoke casually and turned his attention back to into his datapad.

Hunter just watched him leave the ship, decided not to go after his brother, and just left him alone for a while.

Crosshair walked to a pile of some big packages next to the ship and sat down, in the dark and alone with his own feelings. "As far as I know, Jedi can't have romantic relationships" Crosshair though, quietly to himself. "But why am I thinking this?" When he realized what he was thinking about General Skywalker, he was even more confused. He couldn't be jealous, because it just didn't make sense, he barely knew General Skywalker.

Admiration. That was it, Crosshair admired him and he was fulfilling a dream, silly, but the dream of working with him on a mission. But when he remembered the General's soft but firm voice, when he remembered the hair blowing in the wind, the way he spoke, the gentle smile and the brown eyes looking right at you... "Ah General Skywalker..." Crossahair's expression, which had previously been frowning, now softened as he remembered Anakin.

Now that he knows Anakin's face, he could picture him on missions, destroying battle droid with his lightsaber, giving orders to the others, doind whatever Jedi thing he wanted to do.

But again Crosshair's mind returned to Anakin and Rex, what was so important they needed to do that it couldn't wait? And why couldn't they tell anyone? Crosshair was completely lost, resting his elbows on his shoulder and lowering his head to concentrate on what was happening there, and try to understand his own feelings about the situation.

"Hey Crosshair, right?" Anakin's voice echoed through the dark outside the base. Crosshair felt his heart pounding, and quickly raised his head and saw Anakin walking towards him waving his right hand.

"Yes General, it's me" Crosshair again frowned and stood up to receive Anakin, trying to keep himself serious and not look nervous or anything.

"Oh perfect, we are going to leave, alright? Can you call the others and meet us on that ship over there? Sorry for the delay, I was solving some pending issues." Anakin was serious but his voice was just soft as before.

"Jedi stuff?" Crosshair tried to look casual as he walked towards the general in front of him. He couldn't help but notice how gorgeous he looks with the low lights on him.

"Yeah… things that Jedi shouldn't be doing… B-But that's not the point right now…" Anakin looked a little confused and smiled crookedly putting his hand over his head. "We will be waiting on the ship." Anakin said and turned to walk towards it.

"Of course, we'll be there soon." Crosshair said in a low voice as he placed a toothpick in his mouth. Anakin's reaction made him even more confused and curious about what happened, he stood for a few minutes, just watching Anakin walk away, while he was completely absorbed in thought.

Anakin's voice echoed in his mind "things that Jedi shouldn't be doing" what did that mean? Why would Rex be involved? Crosshair frowned, and walked to the ship slowly as his mind traveled with thoughts of Anakin.

"General Skywalker called us, said we're on our way" Crosshair's voice was low and serious, as usual, and he walked over to his sniper gun and helmet.

The others took their things and left the Havoc Marauder towards the ship where Anakin was.

Crosshair was the last on to leave, he was nervous. His frown was quickly hidden by his helmet. He took his sniper and left the ship, following his brothers. His eyes were fixed on Anakin. So beautiful and so mysterious.

He entered the ship, and it took flight. The mission would finally begin, Crosshair was anxious for the first time in his life. He would finally work alongside Anakin Skywalker and couldn't wait for what was to come.

#skycross #anakin x crosshair #fanfic #fluffy #tbb fanfic #anakin fanfic #crosshair #anakin #the bad batch #the bad batch fanfiction #mine

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the-silentium · 3 years

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A story of shirts

Masterlist - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - The survivor - Part 4 - Epilogue

Pairing: Bad Batch x Reader, Hunter x Reader, Crosshair x Reader

Words: 2774 words

Warnings: TESTOSTERONE.

A/N: Reader’s native language is *roll drum* French! Really original, I know! Translations will be at the end of the chapter ~

Taglist: @haloangel391

"You gonna eat that?" Wrecker asked from your right, his chubby pointer finger signaling to your half-eaten piece of bread.

"Yeah." You confirmed, taking more of the ration pack, reaching for the bread to illustrate.

"Too bad." He stole the piece before you got a hold of it, hurrying to stuff it in his mouth as soon as you reached forward to take it back.

"Wreck! It was mine!" You whined, hitting his shoulder multiple times in retaliation.

"Cut it out." Hunter called from his spot on the other side of the fire, shooting the both of you an unimpressed glance over his water canteen.

"But he-!" You cut yourself, not wanting to pout like a baby, instead taking a deep breath in and planning your revenge like a petulant child.

You've been with the Batchers for a good year, flying them around different systems, perfecting your flying skills as well as developing some basic medical ones to help them when needed.

So far, no one from the GAR noticed that you were a fraud among the army, letting you enough time to read about the GAR and become more familiar with the whole system and chain of command. You had now all the knowledge necessary to keep the lie going without a hitch. Hell, even Cody never connected the dots.

Over time the relationships between you and each of the boys improved to the point where Wrecker would call you his vod'ika and you'd call him your frangin.

Tech exploited his extended knowledge to gain a serious advantage over his brothers once a month. He would generously share his secret stash of candies with you whenever the first day of your period started (you were sure he did that to stay in your good favors and keep your irritation away from himself - which was working, fortunately for him).

Crosshair would share some of his precious secrets blackmails so you could use them when the others were being annoying shits and kindly taught you how to properly shoot with blasters so you could defend yourself better.

Hunter used you as his personal enhanced senses painkiller, meaning that he'd requisition you for an hour when his head felt like it was on the verge of exploding from overstimulation, sit on the floor facing you, lean his head on your chest and listen to you singing a soft lullaby in your native tongue.

Out of the corner of your eyes, you noticed Wrecker getting up from his seat on the ground beside you to get to the ship, passing right behind you to get to his destination. Swiftly, you straightened your hand, turned around and pushed the back of his knee forward to bend it with ease.

Smirking, you admired your handy work when Wrecker yelped in surprise that his knee just gave up underneath him and crashed to the ground.

You laughed wholeheartedly, covering Crosshair's snickers who watched you the whole time because he knew you'd serve his brother a good payback for taking your precious food.

"You want to fight vod'ika?" Wrecker asked jokingly from his kneeled position a few feet away.

"Bring it on frangin!" You replied, pushing your dry rations down your throat with a big gulp of water. That was something else that took some time to get used to. Tasteless water meant good water. Don't spit the good water.

"Here we go again." Sighed Tech, rolling his eyes at banter.

"Don't be a grinch, Tech. That's Crosshair's role." You flicked his shoulder and ignored Cross glare to get up and meet the big man who instantly went to poke your side.

He'd learned his lesson a while ago when he punched your shoulder playfully and let you a gigantic bruise on your skin that lasted for weeks. Hunter genuinely thought that he'd hit you hard (he did, but Wrecker was excited, so you weren't mad) leading to the 'no hitting your teammates' rule. Wrecker felt bad for a while but soon you got him to cheer up and instead of fake fights, you'd do poking fights.

Jumping to the side, you moved your foot behind his knee to repeat your previous trick, effectively making him fall on one knee and pushed him on his back with all your strength.

As soon as he was on his back you poked his stomach, not too hard to make him sick, he just ate after all, but enough to mark your point.

"That's for my bread!" You laughed, dodging his hands trying to grasp yours to stop you from assaulting his abdomen.

He finally got a grab of your wrists, joined them in one of his hands and attacked your sides with his free hand, poking to the right places to have you yelp and trash around.

"Stop! Stop!" You shrieked, pulling on your arms to free them.

"As you wish." He grinned, opening his hand when you pulled with all your might, your elbows hitting your own abdomen and emptying your lungs from their precious air.

You groaned for a few seconds, recovering from the blow sprawled over Wrecker's chest unceremoniously. His laugh resonated through your body, the vibrations shaking your bones and making your teeth clash together.

"Still wanna fight?" He teased, head lifted from the ground to meet your unimpressed gaze.

"Enough for tonight." Hunter cut you off as you opened your mouth to sass him back.

Closing your mouth without another word, you rolled your eyes and got to your feet, following Wrecker inside the ship to retrieve an extra layer to keep you comfortable under the stars.

You walked past Wrecker who stopped at the fresher, to enter the barracks to rummage under your pillow for Hunter's top blacks he threw at you the night prior.

He noticed that you often stole his blacks whenever you felt cold at night in the ship, sliding under the fabric only when you thought they were asleep. You always made sure to replace it before he woke up, always neatly folded like it never left. But he knew. Your scent lingered on the fabric, a fact you forgot to think about, not that he minded. After a couple of times, he started to simply throw the blacks at your face before laying down on his bed. He knew you never got used to the cold of space, your skin remembering the constant warmth of the jungle, letting you vulnerable to any change of temperature.

You slipped the blacks over your head, the fabric covering your three-quarter sleeve shirt without a hitch and offering you the extra warmth needed for you to be able to find sleep instead of chattering teeth for the whole night.

Now ready to go out and bury yourself under your blanket near the fire, you walked out with a pep in your step, eager to lay down and relax for the remaining hours before a new assignment arrived and forced you all away on some dangerous mission.

"Acceptin' the markin'?" Wrecker appeared from the fresher, wiping his hands on his pants.

"What?" You stopped, confused at his question. Did you have ink on your face or something?

"He means this." Crosshair answered for his brother, walking further into the ship to pinch the shoulder of the blacks on his way to his bunk where he retrieved an extra blanket for himself.

"What about it?"

"You're only wearin' Hunter's." He remarked, toothpick dancing between his lips.

"Wrecker's are way too big and you'd strangle me with the sleeves if I took yours." You pointed out, a hand moving to your hip. What was his point?

"Why not Tech's?" He approached closer, clearly trying to intimidate you. It may have worked in the beginning but this era was long gone.

"Last time I did he started hiding them so I wouldn't do it again. What is this about?" The two of them shared a look and you knew they had information you didn't, and the mere idea of it made your heart speed up a bit.

"It wasn't Tech who hid them." Crosshair faced you again, his arms crossing at his chest, the blanket folded over one of his arms. "It was Hunter."

It took you seconds to connect the dot and make sense of everything. Hunter started throwing you his blacks the night after you borrowed Tech's and after that, you couldn't find his anywhere again. You'd accepted the gesture and never questioned it afterward, simply thinking that he cared about your sleeping habits or something.

He did care. But for a totally different reason.

"He's jealous." You whispered, eyes widening to Crosshair's delight.

At the back of your mind, a part of you was melting, the sergeant's possessiveness flattering you to no end, although another part of you found it was stupid to be jealous of his brother. You noted to talk to him about that later, but you were sure that the subject would arise rather sooner than later if the mischievous glint in the sniper's eyes was anything to go by.

"He is. So you'll wear this instead." He took a top of his blacks from within the blanket and shoved it onto your chest until you picked it up.

"Your blacks? Wait. Are you angry at him or somethin'?" You eyed the fabric in your hands, rolling the hem between your fingers. This wasn't a good idea. There were ulterior motives to his actions. Always.

"Just wanna see him boilin'." He replied, rolling his head on the side a bit.

"You wanna call him on his bullshit." You pointed out, one eyebrow slowly lifting in the air, unimpressed.

He didn't respond but his smirk told you enough, and the longer he held your gaze, the wider the grin creeping its way onto your lips became. Yes, you had feelings for the dark-haired clone, but you were fundamentally a prankster. Always in for a good laugh. Plus, what problems can a shirt do? It's a shirt!

You removed Hunter's blacks, keeping a hold of your undershirt so you wouldn't show too much to your brothers and quickly slipped into the new shirt. Sadly, the sleeves were a bit tight so you had to adjust your undershirt sleeves but you manage to replace them easily.

You rolled Hunter's black into a ball and throw it onto your bed.

"Don't be mean." You threatened Crosshair with a finger under his chin.

"And you don't drool all over it." He took his toothpick from his lips to poke your fingers with it. You hissed and he threw it away.

You walked out with Cross at your side, Wrecker choosing to walk before you so you would all be close enough to see the shift in Hunter's expression. If the boys were right, that is.

Unfortunately, Hunter seemed too engrossed in his conversation with Tech to notice your shirt so as soon as you all sat onto your respective blankets, yours placed between Wrecker's and Tech's, you leaned slightly forward toward Crosshair.

"Thanks for the shirt Cross!" You smiled at him.

In the corner of your eyes, you noticed Hunter straighten, head moving to you despite Tech still addressing him. Cross grunted in acknowledgment, already watching Hunter and was clearly enjoying what he saw.

Your eyes moved to the sergeant's, who was now deeply frowning, too concentrated on analyzing your shirt that he didn't notice the four pairs of eyes scrutinizing his face, three playful, one confused.

"What's wrong?" Tech asked, head-turning to you to see what disturbed him that much. As soon as his eyes fell on you he knew. And you felt stupid for being the last one to notice that this was happening. "Ah." That you've been stupid enough to let yourself fall into a territorial fight.

"Not to your liking, Sarge?" Crosshair sassed, enjoying the tightness in his brother's jaw.

You started to feal really bad. And confused. Was Crosshair really interested in you too? You knew Hunter cared about you, the kisses, the hugs, the moments of vulnerability shared with one another, they all told you that you meant something more. But Crosshair’s behavior really started to contradict everything you thought you knew about him.

"What's that?" He turned to confront his brother, catching on to the fact that he'd been played as soon as he registered the smugness coating Crosshair's face.

"Cut the crap. 's just a shirt." He rolled his eyes at Hunter's barely concealed annoyance. But it wasn't just a shirt. Not to them.

It started to dawn on you that this was a terrible idea and that you've been played and that- oh shit Hunter's fingers closed to form a fist entangled in his blanket.

"Stop right there." You hurried to cut Hunter's words that you just knew would start a bickering war. You had to stop it before it could deteriorate to something bad because you didn't trust Crosshair to not put oil on the fire and hit every single one of his brother's nerves. To top it all, he was the one right next to Hunter. This was getting dangerous.

" 'm not wearin' anyone's shirt."

You removed the blacks, ignoring the concert of grumbles telling you not to, rolled it in a ball, switched the ball with Tech's and used it as your personal pillow. You laid down on your back and pulled the blanket tightly around yourself, eying the stars above like you used to on Fors.

You seemed to have done the right thing, because the rest followed your example, Tech's head burying itself in his new pillow inches from yours. A yelp from Crosshair soon followed by a smack in retaliation made you sigh, effectively cutting short their childish behaviors.

It took a couple of minutes until the sergeant heard what he was waiting for, a soft clattering muffled by the blanket covering your mouth, the sound of your hands moving up and down your arms in hope of creating warmth and your irregular breathing that you controlled enough to keep it down but not enough to keep it steady.

The boys had fallen asleep, Wrecker's snores echoing between the trees around, Crosshair's and Tech's soft regular breathings were easy to distinguish.

"Y/N." He called softly to not wake his brothers, his eyes already on your subtly shaking form. "I know you're cold."

You turned your head in his direction, frowning.

"So? I won't get the shirt back on." You whispered, gaze moving to Tech to make sure he was still sleeping.

"Good. C'mere." He lifted the corner of his blanket, to which you raised an eyebrow.

"Sharing your blanket to prove yourself better, now?"

"Just…" He pointed to the spot next to him with his head. "C'mere."

You huffed while sitting up to look around, the three remaining clones were still out, their peaceful face illuminated by the dying fire in the center of your circle. Carefully, you got up with the fabric tightly wrapped around your shoulders, stepping over Tech's hand and reached the offered spot.

Immediately you felt the warmth radiating off him and like a moth to a flame, you wrapped yourself around him without shame because you needed this. And because it was so unfair that he could regulate his temperature while you couldn't, so you decided that he had to share.

Clearly, he didn't mind, his arms sneaking around your waist to keep you close and offer you more of his body heat, his head leaning down a bit to breathe in your bewitching smell and place a kiss onto your hair just as you snuggled closer and leaned your head onto his chest, one of your legs sneaking between his to get more comfortable.

"Better?" His chest rose and downed slowly, unlike the beating of his heart beneath your fingertips. This was the first time you had this much contact with each other, the feeling not lost on either of you.

"Yeah." You moved your head to place a kiss under his jaw and reposition yourself. "Didn't know he even liked me." You whispered, finger moving in circles over his heart, asking yourself how did this happen?

"He liked you after our first time on Fors. He was a goner after the second time." He explained truthfully, the memory of the second trip onto this godforsaken planet made him shiver in dread. How people could live in this hell was beyond his comprehension.

You noticed his reaction and automatically reached up to dissipate the trauma with a slow movement of your fingers over his cheeks.

"But I was there first." He smirked, arms tightening around you somewhat.

"Don't start." You smacked his chest softly to which he quietly laughed.

Frangin = Brother

Next part here: A story of having each other’s back

#bad batch x reader #crosshair x reader #hunter x reader #tech x reader #wrecker x reader #clone force 99 #star wars #clone wars #murphy day

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mugichaaaa · 3 years

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Bad Batch Analysis

So Bad Batch release date doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon so here is my analysis on the bad batch trailer that no one asked for, but do I care? Lowkey yeah but… there is barely any bad batch stuff so here we are.

spoilers to bad batch trailer

So the first thing I see about the Trailer is this scene right here: Where the bad batch is coming out of there ship at night on a planet that looks like Falucia. I have a feeling this will be one of the earlier episodes in the season since Echo has a different armor than the one we see later in the trailer. This is the only time during the trailer where we ever see this planet. So I think this is going to be either half an episode or just one episode like a filler episode

Next thing I notice is that Hunter is fighting a zygerrian and a little later we see Tech and Wrecker catching up with Hunter.

It makes me wonder where is Echo and Crosshair? Shouldn’t they be there fighting alongside them? But my theory is that later on in the trailer around 0:36 we see Echo dawn new armor.

I believe Crosshair is with Echo during this sequence as like a battle buddy. What is a battle buddy? A battle buddy is where someone is assigned to another and they are both expected to protect and assist each other. Dose the GAR follow the same system as the US military? I don’t know, but it would make sense for Crosshair to be with Echo to make sure he’s okay and doesn’t get in trouble.

Another thing I notice is the snowy planet that was seen quite a lot in the trailer. First time we see anything on the snowy planet is at 0:18 where we see clones/stormtroopers and an explosion.

Was the explosion caused by the batchers? Or was that the empire’s doing? Then at 0:23 we see Wrecker jumping down while what looks like a droid falling off a cliff. We don’t get a good look at the droid but it kind of looks like a modified model of the type II loadlifter droid that we see in season 7 (the one Trace and Ahsoka had to chase down). We get a good amount of scenes of this snowy planet and crosshair so maybe this might be like a character Arc for Crosshair.

In this scene you would think it would be like all batchers but in reality the one in the back is Echo not Crosshair. Crosshair is nowhere to be seen in this scene, so there are really only two things that come to mind: 1) Crosshair is somewhere else farther away ready to fire, since some may or may not know but sniper rifles work really well if it’s in long range that’s why it's a long range weapon. Or 2) he’s one of the purge troopers, I don’t really know about this idea since we got like barely anything on the purge troopers in the trailer.

We get our first appearance of all the purge troopers, or at least what we see right now, now many people are saying the one in the middle is either Crosshair or Cody. Now I don’t really think the middle one is Cody but I do think that one of them IS Cody but i don’t really know who or how that would work.

Let’s start off with Crosshair because honestly I thought this was Crosshair at first but a little bit more research would tell me otherwise. So in the scene where we first see the purge troopers, there is one leading the pack who looks just like Crosshair, but is it truly Crosshair? well we really don’t know until the show comes out, but we can only guess. So let's start off with the equipment we know of. Crosshair has a very special customized rifle, which is the 773 firepuncher rifle. These rifles dose seem to be a rarity in the galaxy as we only seen two (maybe now 3) people ever use the 773 firepuncher rifle, one is our lovely asshat of a sniper Crosshair, one is Azmorigan’s henchmen, and maybe now the new purge trooper.

Now this wouldn’t immediately point to Crosshair being the purge trooper, since we still haven’t fully analyzed the equipment that the purge trooper has. Something that a friend pointed out was that the purge trooper and crosshair have a DC-17 hand blaster. While I was rewatching it again I noticed that Crosshair has one DC-17 hand blaster on his left thigh and our lovely friend the Purge trooper also has a DC-17 hand blaster on his left thigh as well. Now all of this might be some weird coincidence or maybe that the GAR gives all their snipers a 773 firepuncher rifle and a DC-17 hand blaster that goes on the left thigh. but what I have said doesn’t work because we only know two cannon people who are seen with the 773 firepuncher and a DC-17 hand blaster. GAR does have clone snipers, and those clones who are snipers are given a DC-15x sniper rifle not the fire puncher, it seems to be the standard for clone snipers. After all I said the equipment can be completely coincidental. Now for the armor, the armor looks like Crosshair but is it really Crosshair? Yes and maybe no, I have seen people like to point out the Helmet. Yes the helmet looks the same but isn’t really Crosshairs. The Helmet to me looks like the phase II helmet that Wolffe and Rex wear. The visor looks somewhat the same as both Crosshair and the Purge Trooper has a thin visor, but I looked a little more into it and the visor looks like Echo’s. The coincidence that Crosshair and the Purge trooper have the same equipment and similarities in the armor could possibly lead to Crosshair being the new purge trooper but I have a feeling that Crosshair is not the purge trooper and let me explain that as well.

Now I’m going to go off on a little theory so bear with me as I barely have any evidence for this and this is all going off my gut. So we know elite squads exist, we have of course Clone force 99/Bad Batch, Delta and Omega Squad, and Foxtrot group. Now I’m going to focus a little more on the Bad Batch and Delta squad. So both Delta squad and Bad Batch have skilled snipers Sev and Crosshair. In Legends Sev stood out for being amazing at Ambush training and his ability to work with a Sniper rifle, while we barely know anything about Crosshair’s life on Kamino we can only expect something like that. From what we got from Legends and Cannon both Crosshair and Sev are both highly respected snipers in the GAR. So it only makes sense when one is MIA and the other one deserted from the Empire they would want to make a clone or human be the next best sniper in the GAR or now Empire. I’m thinking they would most likely use the exact same equipment as Crosshair to match the snipers skills which can explain the coincidence of Crosshair and the purge trooper having the same weapon. Now is this highly likely? Most likely no but it would be cool for Delta squad to be mentioned.

Since we mentioned Delta squad I think there may be a possibility that the purge troopers we see in the trailer are Delta squad. Now there is like Zero evidence for this being true but in legends Delta squad would go on and work for the empire hunting down surviving Jedi, jedi sympathizers, and Clone deserters now which elite squad do we know of that deserted the empire?? So to entertain this idea I wanted to see which trooper from the purge trooper squad could be from Delta squad.

Now the flame purge trooper could be Scorch since during his days on Kamino he was really good with explosives, soooo explosive...flames sounds like something scorch might like. Now Boss and Fixer are harder to point out since the three other purge troopers don't really scream Boss or Fixer. So I'm just gonna assign them to these two. Now the sniper? In legends the Empire replaced Sev with another trooper but I have zero idea what that trooper is like so the sniper is up in the air.

Omg my wife Fennac shand, I believe in Fennac Shand supremacy. So Fennac Shand is in the bad batch most likely to tie her to other media and not just the Mandolorian. The area she’s in is very ominous and there really isn’t much to go off of. The fog in the background might indicate either she was just in a fight and she is at a standstill or it could be just how the building is very foggy. I also believe she might be tied into the mining facility we see in the trailer, as Fennec is also seen looking away where she seems to be in the mining facility as well.

I’m so confused on who that is, I want to say Crosshair because I love him but the hand blaster is on the wrong side of the thigh as that is the right thigh not the left. Same excuse for the purge trooper. So like the next best thing I can think of is that “this is definitely someone who is not from the bad batch and not from the squad of purge troopers but definitely has clone armor” so what do those my mind go to? Clone commanders. Now this could be a clone commander that we know or a clone commander we don’t know/barely heard of. The reason why my mind went to clone commanders is because we know a lot about clone commanders that are alive but barely any arc troopers that are alive and would align themselves with the empire. Plus the DC-17 hand blaster is pretty much a staple to all clone commanders. Due to the lighting I can’t 100% say that it’s Rex without his Kama because of his hand guards, but I can 100% confirm that that’s not anyone from Bad Batch or the Purge trooper squad.

We see an explosion from what looks like a damaged ship with the purge trooper with the sniper rifle looking on, I believe this scene and the scene at 1:09 are connected to each other somehow.

The reason why I think they are somehow connected is by how the sniper purge trooper is watching/escaping the explosion. How did I know that this was the purge trooper and not crosshair? Well at 1:00 we can see the sniper look at the explosion and if you enhance the brightness I can’t see the little red stick thingy Crosshair has on his left shoulder. Same thing can be true about 1:09 as I clearly can’t see anything that can identify Crosshair as there is no red stick thingy on his left shoulder.

Now I’m going to call this segment cool things I saw on the trailer

Okay most of these are tech related because he just got really nice scenes on the trailer

Tech just looks so bored when the Emperor is talking. Like you see Hunter and Wrecker standing in attention because that’s the emperor you gotta show him respect, and there's tech who just likes “yeah yeah yeah cool, look at how cool my datapad is I think it’s amazing”

Let's play spot Bad Batch

There they are! I feel like this shows that even though the Bad Batch are unique and different from the clone army they are still seen the same way in the eyes of the empire, a tool for a bigger plot to destroy the jedi (which already happened).

I always thought this scene was cool every single time I watched them. Crosshair got that one shot one kill… well more like one shot three kills.

Wrecker punching Tech arm is something I thought was funny, because it’s like Tech is clearly worried about something else and Wrecker comes in going “yeah bro!”.

Look at his face, he looks so done

I also noticed that the Havoc Marauder has guns at the back of the ship. I don’t know why I didn’t think the Havoc Marauder didn’t have guns on the back. I just thought Tech was that good of a pilot to dodge all of those blaster fires.

I don’t know why this scene was so heartwarming to me. I think it’s just tech looking up at hunter probably telling him something important about their mission or the planet they're on that warms my heart.

I love this scene, Tech showing off his technical skills is amazing. I bet it’s like BD’s splice ability where BD can easily hack a droid when it’s almost down.

and that’s that, thank you all who have read this far! I hope I was able to clearly put my thoughts out there. Let’s hope that we receive some news about the Bad Batch show soon! If there’s anything you want add on please type down below I would love to read what everyone else has to say!

#star wars #star wars the clone wars #tcw #bad batch #the bad batch #sergeant hunter #arc trooper echo #clone trooper wrecker #clone trooper crosshair #clone trooper tech #crosshair #clone trooper hunter #please Filoni I am desperate for any news about the bad batch show #clone force 99

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jonathananubian · 3 years

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Aliit Ori'shya eyn Eyayah be Ruyot [Star Wars/Mandalorian Fanfic]

Aliit Ori'shya eyn Eyayah be Ruyot: Family is more than an echo of the past.

Summary: When a Jedi artifact sends Din somewhere else the poor man is disoriented and confused. He has no idea what’s going on or why the lights were suddenly so bright. He plans on keeping a low profile and scouting out this new place until he hears the sound of a young voice crying out in pain. Harsh words that should never be spoken to a child follow the sound of another blow and Din can’t help but to intervene.

Characters: Din Djarin, CC-2224 | Cody, CT-7567, Dred Priest, Jango Fett, Mij Gilamar, Kal Skirata.

Tags: Force Shenanigans, Protective Din, BAMF Din, Clone Cadets, Cuy’val Dar Dred Priest, Time travel, Not beta-read. (Now a chapter fic.)

Warnings: Child abuse, violence, cursing.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32481793

Spots danced across his vision as Din let out a low groan. His entire body felt as if it had fallen asleep, the pins and needles making him twitch and wince behind his helmet. Lifting his head he quickly glanced around for any signs of life before letting out a relieved sigh too low for the helmet speaker to pick up. Slowly sitting up he stared at the unfamiliar white walls around him and frowned in confusion.

This was not the damp old cave he’d found himself in earlier that cycle.

The last thing he remembered was stumbling and falling through a wall that should have been solid, but wasn’t. The walls changed from a damp old cave tunnel to a stagnant aired cavern with carved pillars. It looked exactly like the kind of thing Luke had asked him to look out for on his jobs so he’d cautiously made his way up the steps to the small altar at the top.

As he strode forward lights burst into life around him, startling him into reaching for his weapons. When nothing happened he relaxed his death grip on his spear and let out a small sigh of relief.

Resting in an indent in the elaborately carved stone was an orb that was smaller than his palm. It seemed opaque at first but the longer he stared at it, wondering if he should touch it or not, the clearer it became. Inside were dancing flecks of color that swirled together like an infinitesimal galaxy, almost hypnotic in the way they reflected the light.

Warily he reached for the orb, knowing that there was an inherent danger in anything touched or made by Jedi magic. Picking it up he tensed for something strange to happen, though Luke had told him most artifacts didn’t react to someone who was both force null and encased in beskar. When nothing happened he gripped the orb more firmly and carefully made his way back the way he’d come.

Of course it was just his luck that nothing ever went quite the way he expected.

There was a loud rumble as everything began to shake around him. He could hear the cracking of stone and looked up as sharp stalactites fell from the ceiling toward him. Diving out of the way he hissed in alarm as his grip on the orb proved weak.

The orb clattered to the ground and he sucked in a sharp breath as it rolled a few feet away from his outstretched hand. Scrambling to his feet he darted forward to grab it- but was too late.

Another chunk of rock detached from the ceiling and he watched it fall as if in slow motion.

The sound of the orb shattering was loud in the sudden silence that followed.

Then Din saw white.

Now here he was, stalking the white halls of the strange facility as he tried to figure out what in the Ka’ra had happened. Oh, he knew it was force osik. Din just didn’t know what kind of force osik. Luke had never been the best at explaining it in terms he understood and after the many long lectures he’d kind of started to tune it all out.

Checking around another bland corner into another junction that looked exactly like every other one he’d passed Din was about to dash across the open space when a sound was picked up by his helmet.

It froze him in his tracks, entire body stiff and ears straining just in case he’d misheard.

“Pathetic! Absolutely useless! Quit that bitching or I will twist off your head and shit down your neck!” The voice was rough, masculine, and yelling at a volume that was near impossible to miss.

But that wasn’t what Din was focused on.

The sound of a child trying and failing to muffle their cries of pain made his heart race in his chest and his blood boil in his veins.

Without a single thought to the consequences he pushed himself away from the wall and stalked down the hall the noise had come from, hands clenched at his sides.

“Did I say you could step out of line CC-2224? Get back in line before I put my boot so far up your ass you can spit shine it!” The more Din heard the faster he walked until he was practically belting down the long hallway.

“And you! You have the coordination of a one winged mynock tripping on spice! A defect like you wouldn’t know how to-" Slamming his hand down on the pad the door slid open to a large training room.

Din’s chest heaved as he took in the small forms standing around a circle in matching uniforms, not one of them taller than his waist. Near the center of the group was an armored man with one large hand around the neck of a blonde child, pinning them against the mats as they scrabbled to escape. There were recent bruises on the child’s face and blood running from their nose.

Din saw red.

“Demagolka!” He snarled, spear already in his hands as he stalked forward like the deadly hunter he was.

“Who the fu-” The man never got a chance to finish his sentence before Din was on him.

The guy put up a fight, Din would give him that, but he clearly hadn’t kept up with whatever training he’d been raised with.

Din on the other hand? He’d been training since his buir saved him during the Clone Wars. Had fought on the front lines during the Purge, and killed a Greater Krayt Dragon.

In the end the demagolka was dead with Din’s spear shoved up into his ribcage through a gap in his armor.

The children stared at him, looking too scared to move, as Din stood over their former tormentor. Pulling his spear out of the quickly cooling corpse he set it onto the ground and turned to regard the small blonde child.

Some time during the fight one of the older children had rushed forward and pulled the injured child away, cradling the blonde to their chest. As Din came closer the two of them flinched, holding fast to one another and trying desperately not to cry. Din stopped a few feet away and crouched so he wasn’t towering over them.

“Hey there. I’m not here to hurt you, I swear.” The children stiffened, their faces scrunching up slightly in confusion.

Din looked between them and frowned. The ade were very similar in appearance and he was fairly certain they were brothers. Not twins, one of them was at least a year or two younger, but definitely related.

But where had he seen a face like that before…

Din pushed the thought away. It was irrelevant to the situation at hand. Reaching into the pouches on his belt he slowly pulled out a small medical pack and showed it to the children. “It’s just some alcohol wipes and bacta spray. I want to make sure they’re okay. Will you let me?” He motioned toward the blonde who in turn looked up at their potentially elder sibling.

The child watched him for a moment, amber eyes intelligent and sharp, before they flicked over to the body of the fake Mandalorian. After a moment or two of silence the child turned back to him and nodded curtly.

Din’s shoulders relaxed and he smiled. “Thank you.” Getting closer he knelt in front of the children and opened the package in front of them. Taking out the alcohol wipe he gently ran it over the boy’s face, making a low noise of reassurance when the child flinched and let out a hiss of pain. “Hey, you’re doing good kid.” He soothed quietly as he checked the rest of their bruises. He had to hold back another flash of anger at the sight of a handprint that almost completely encircled the slender neck.

He should have inflicted a lot more pain on the demagolka.

“There you go, kid, feeling a bit better?” The child blinked dark brown eyes up at him and hesitantly nodded. Din reached over and ruffled their short cropped hair. “Mandokarla.” He said warmly.

The child let out a surprised squeak and ducked further into the arms of their ori’vod, who frowned up at him in confusion. Din got to his feet and looked around at the other children, looking for any further injuries, and paused as the strangeness of their appearance finally registered.

Every single one of them shared the same features.

It wasn’t exact, he was observant enough to notice small differences, but they were all so similar it was unsettling.

Then it clicked.

Clones.

Just like Boba.

The very thought made Din’s mind race. Had the last remnants of the Empire somehow gotten hold of Boba’s dna and re-started their clone army? Din thought they’d moved on to the damned droid troopers and attempting to use Grogu’s blood to give them access to Jedi magic. Did they bring back the clones because Moff Gideon had failed?

As the children continued to watch him warily one of them finally stepped forward. “Sir?” They said, voice shaking slightly.

Din snapped out of his thoughts and turned toward the child. “Yes?” He said softly. Clones or not they were just children. Injured, scared, children.

“What are your Orders, Sir? A-are you our new Sergeant now?” The child stood stiffly, arms at his sides even as his bottom lip trembled with nerves.

Din melted at the sight.

“No orders.” He said quietly, still worried he might spook the lot of them. “And I’m no one’s sergeant. I’m a Beroya.” He wasn’t sure if the kids knew what that was but he didn’t feel like explaining further. “But I don’t think we should stay here.” He glanced back at the corpse and swallowed the curses that tried to force themselves out of his mouth. “If they have friends then they’ll probably realize they’re dead soon.”

The kids stared up at him in confusion, looking so lost it hurt his soul. “Hey, I’m not going to let someone like that hurt you again. Okay?” He could feel their eyes on him and straightened further. “I swear. I will protect each and every one of you with my last breath.”

“Why?” The child holding onto the blonde asked, tone heated. “We’re just clones.”

Din thought carefully about what to say for a moment before he decided it was best to just tell the truth. “One of my ori’vode, my… elder brothers, is a clone. He’s known as one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy.” Din stared right at the child as he spoke. “He is a person, just like you, and all of you have worth.”

There was a sense of something holding its breath, of tense anticipation, before the child’s eyes began to shine and he gave Din a watery smile. He opened his mouth to speak when the sound of a door opening behind them alerted Din to uninvited guests.

“What the fuck is going on in here!” An enraged voice that sounded oddly familiar barked behind him.

In an instant Din turned, dove for his spear, and sprang to his feet; placing his body between the unknown voice and the children.

“Stay behind me!” He ordered the children calmly through the speaker of his helmet.

Standing just inside the doorway were three sentients dressed in beskar’gam. Din growled, watching their every move.

Wearing beskar’gam used to mean that someone was an ally. But with all he’d seen in the last few months there was no guarantee that these three were not also demagolkase.

“Who the hell are you? What are you- is that fucking Priest?” The one in the sandy-yellow of vengeance asked in Mando’a, sounding shocked and incredulous.

“Cadets, get away from them! They’re an intruder!” The second one in gold beskar’gam barked at the children, although his voice was filled more with concern than anything else.

Behind him the children shifted anxiously on their feet but didn’t move.

“Leave the ade alone. Your quarrel is with me.” Din growled, gripping the spear tighter.

“Why are you protecting them?” The one in blue and unpainted beskar asked.

“Children are the future.” He stated firmly. “This is the Way.”

There was a long moment of silence before the one in silver and blue reached up to take off his helmet. “Then we are not your enemy.” Without the interference of the speaker Din stiffened as he finally placed the voice. “My name is Jango Fett, House Mereel.”

Dank ferrik, was that Boba’s buir? What the kark kind of Jedi magic was this?

"I think we need to sit down and have a little talk." Boba's buir said, intelligent eyes straying to the nearby corpse of the demagolka. "At the very least I have to thank you for taking out that trash."

Oh. Well... there really wasn't much else he could do, was there?

"Fine." He said lowering his spear. "But I want a medic to check on the ade. Some of them are injured."

Jango Fett's face split into a grin that set off all of Din's danger senses.

"That can be arranged."

#din djarin #the mandalorian #star wars clone wars #time travel #force shenanigans #somebody dies and it is entirely deserved #star wars fanfiction #cc-2224 #ct-7567 #jango fett

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masterjedilenawrites · 3 years

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The Sniper and The Medic: Chapter 10

Starring: Crosshair, OC Joan Vo

Chapter Warnings: Discussions of bullying, death, injuries, and other tragic things, offset by a lil fluff at the end

Taglist: @proadhog @skippyhopperwisdom

AO3 Link (In case you like it better over there, it’s okay, no judgement)

A/N: Just want to quickly apologize for the 2 week delay in updating this story, but also this will be my 99th post on this blog which is kinda fitting once you read it, so I guess some things are just meant to be...

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Chapter 10: Good Grief

He met her at the designated place that evening, barely able to contain the mixture of excitement and dread that welled within him. On the one hand, Crosshair welcomed any opportunity to spend time with Joan, especially after she had shown interest in wanting to grow closer to him. She looked as beautiful as ever when she joined him, wearing her cute little shorts and signature smile.

But on the other hand, they were running out of time. He deployed tomorrow afternoon. How could they possibly grow closer in such a short window?

And how could he possibly say good-bye if they did?

He led her through the set of double doors and down a long hallway, keeping his strides as relaxed as he could, despite his every nerve being on edge. She walked fairly close alongside him, but nothing too scandalous. Not that it was likely they'd be caught. This part of the facility was more-or-less abandoned, only used to house the more rarely-used supplies for the maintenance crew. Half the walls were stripped of their usual white sheen, revealing cracked plaster and dirty insulation instead. Only a few like himself knew it was a good place to go when in need of some privacy.

But there was also something here he wanted to show Joan. A way to help her understand his life as a defective clone. He wasn't sure why the idea had popped into his head earlier; he should have just suggested the simulation room again, programmed it to a nice, romantic beach or something. But it was too late to go back now.

They neared the door in question and Crosshair punched in the code. He gestured for Joan to walk in ahead of him, wanting to keep an eye on her reactions.

It was barely considered a room, more of a corridor that was meant to connect this hallway with another. A motion-sensor light flickered on as they entered. Miscellaneous boxes and crates had been pushed up against the wall on the left, dusty and unimportant. It was the righthand wall that gave this space significance. It had long been reduced to its concrete foundation, and chiseled crudely over most of its surface were names and numbers. The largest script was in the top left corner, only two symbols.

"Ninety-nine," Joan read out loud as she stood in the center of the room and looked over the wall in reverence. "This is a memorial."

Crosshair nodded. "All the clones who've died here, never stepping foot into battle. Most of them defects, like 99. Their names won't be found anywhere else. This... is their only legacy."

She nodded at him solemnly in understanding. He watched as she brushed her hands over some of the etchings, fingers tracing the lines as she read them over. There were mostly numbers, many of them not having lived long enough to find a nickname. One of his own batch-mates had been like that, only living a few short years before his defective heart had given out.

Crosshair tore his gaze away from Joan to find his brother's number on the wall. Beneath it was the second lost brother, who had made it just a little longer. Scraps, they'd called him. He brought his hand up to rest alongside their names, frowning deeply at the memories they gave him.

He felt Joan come to stand next to him and he swallowed hard.

"He was sick all the time, but he kept trying," he explained. "He was worse off than me, and yet I was the kid who cried every night, and he'd talk me down. He'd tell me we had to keep fighting, we had to prove them all wrong. And then one day... he was gone. He'd failed some test and they just... they took him and...."

He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. Thankfully Joan didn't need him to. She laced her fingers through his and squeezed reassuringly.

"They told me I'd be next," he said, his voice getting lower. "The Kaminoans. The training Sergeants. The other cadets. With Wrecker, Hunter, it was obvious they'd be useful, their mutations were fine. But me? What was I good for? Who could look at me and know what I was capable of?"

His words hung between them for a short while before Joan gave another squeeze of his hand.

"I'm so sorry, Crosshair," she said and he knew she meant it. "You deserved better. They all did. But... I know this might not sound quite right, but without that pain, you might not have become as determined and passionate and committed and loyal as you are now."

He finally looked away from the wall and down at her, surprised that she remembered the words he'd once written for her, all those months ago. The words he believed embodied who he really was.

"You didn't let your past break you. You used it to make you stronger. You should be proud of that."

He had never been told such a thing before. He'd never been given permission to feel proud, to take ownership of his life. It made him feel... relieved. To know that all of his struggles could mean something made the burden of grief that much lighter to bear.

And to hear it coming from Joan made him feel things, too. He realized he wanted to kiss her. She was standing somewhat close, her fingers were still grasping his own. She seemed to be enough at ease, comfortable here with him, even in such a sad moment. But he panicked and looked away before he could act on such impulses. He still didn't know what she wanted, or any of the things she'd alluded to having gone through herself. It didn't feel right to make to such an intimate move yet.

"Um, we can talk about you now," he stuttered awkwardly, overly aware of how clammy his hand felt under hers. "If you want...."

She laughed a little, but it wasn't a joyful sound. "I'm afraid my story's not any happier."

"Oh."

She cocked her head a little and reached up with her free hand to lightly touch the tattoo around his eye. "Didn't get a chance to tell you before, but I really like this. It's perfect."

He smirked but kept his eyes carefully fixed on hers, waiting. She seemed to be deciding what she wanted to say.

"Not sure if you've seen my own." She tried to sound playful, letting go of his hand in order to turn slightly and show off the splattering of tattooed birds around the thick scar on her thigh. "It's... kind of a memorial, too."

Joan looked toward the wall and took in a measured breath. "When the war started, my family did what we could to help. But then comes the Republic with its grand, shiny new army, and they tell us they've got it from here. Go home. My parents listened... I didn't. I couldn't. No, I marched up to the first battalion I could find and I told them I'd be helping them whether they liked it or not. They were the 116th, led by Commander Crowe."

She held a small smile on her face, fondness peeking through the sorrow like rays of sunlight into a curtained room.

"Your brothers," said Crosshair knowingly.

"Mmhmm.... They were so good to me. They taught me everything I know. We went through so much together. And then one day..." she looked over at Crosshair apologetically as she borrowed his previous words to tell her own story, "my speeder exploded, messed up my leg really bad. I did everything I could to try and fix it myself, but we were short on supplies and it just wasn't getting any better. Crowe insisted I go to Coruscant for treatment. I didn't want to, I hadn't been apart from them in years, but there was no choice."

And then the curtains were snapped shut and all that was left on Joan's face was sorrow. Sorrow and darkness.

"They died while I was recovering. All of them. A single missile to their ship somewhere in deep space. And that was it. No more 116th battalion. No more family."

Instinctually, Crosshair reached for Joan's hand as she had done for him. She seemed surprised, breaking out of her haze and looking at his hand like it was the only thing grounding her.

"I should have died with them," she said in a hoarse voice. "At least, that's what I told myself for seven months. Until Cody came. He'd been good friends with Crowe, knew all about me. He told me to get over myself. That I was still alive for a reason and that I did nothing to honor their memories by letting myself waste away. And then he offered me a job, said I could help some of his other brothers, the way I'd done for the 116th."

Slowly her sadness was fading and Crosshair was grateful. It was easier to hold on to his own pain and learn to live with it, but seeing the same feelings in Joan had scared him. He didn't know what to do to help her. As she wrapped up her story, though, he began to realize that he already had.

"He said it was an experimental unit and that none of you would look like, well, the regular clones, so maybe it'd be easier for me to get back into it. And it was. I knew I loved all of you boys from the first day. You were all confident and eager. None of the battle-worn spirits I was used to dealing with. You gave me life again. Helped me rediscover my purpose. My passion."

She took a step closer to him, holding his hand back firmly.

"You were the tough one," she smirked. "You're so calm and relaxed, so sure of yourself. Any time I felt anxious or like I wasn't making a difference, I knew I could count on you to put me at ease. Even when you were a little sassy."

She giggled, but Crosshair's mind was reeling. She thought he was the assured one? This whole time she'd been seeing him the same way he saw her?

"And then, you know, you stood me up that one day," she sighed dramatically and then it was his stomach that started doing flips as the regret from his actions returned. "Which happened to be the, uh, anniversary of their passing.... And I didn't think I'd be able to do anything that day, except that I knew you'd be coming by, and so I actually got out of bed and did some chores and saw other patients.... And I was trying to think of ways I could keep you for longer than just a consult on your injury. I was going to have you teach me darts and maybe help me sneak some good snacks from somewhere or ask to get a tour of your new ship...."

She was looking up at him with bright eyes and the thought of kissing her returned. She was definitely close enough now, and as he made eye contact, she couldn't seem to remember what she was going to say next, her voice trailing off into short little breaths.

"I really am sorry," he said, stalling for time. He wasn't sure why he kept hesitating when it was something he wanted so desperately. So much for her thinking he was confident.

"I know," she said softly. Was she leaning closer or was he?

"I... I'm leaving tomorrow," he said.

"I know." Both of their hands were clasped in each other's now, pulses beating rapidly beneath hopeful grips.

"And," he kept going, even though the space between them was continuing to grow smaller, "I've never done this before."

"I know." She grinned, and that undid him.

Whatever self-conscious walls he'd put up for whatever irrational reasons came crumbling down as he finally closed the gap and pressed his lips against hers.

#star wars #the clone wars #the bad batch #clone force 99 #crosshair #crosshair x oc #original clone characters #clone trooper 99 #commander cody #angst #sorrow #tw: death #fluff #kissy kissy

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crispyjenkins · 4 years

Note

Prompt where the 212 gets together to paint Obi-Wan’s armor so he would wear it more but at some point our fool gets captured and his captor wears the armor to piss Kenobi off so when the 212 comes in Cody goes absolutely feral when he sees someone else where his general’s armor and Kenobi gets absolutely railed by Cody after.

(i don’t do smut, but i love this idea so so much, i really don’t know why i haven’t come across more painted armour Obi stuff, and y’all have probably realised i’m all about Obi angst, sooo this one was a lot of fun. thank you so much for prompting, lovely! threw in some headcanon mandalorian family and courting culture just for you)

Jedi were not made to wear armour, they were not soldiers, at least not before. Cody knows his general picked up clone culture better than most, from the little bits of Mando’a to the importance of Vode An, and he should perhaps be thankful that General Kenobi wears any armour at all, but what good are simple pauldrons and vambraces when Kenobi throws himself against hundreds of clankers without backup on a weekly basis?

It’s Wupi that suggests it, drunk on Waxer’s rotgut and going grey with how often he has to patch up their general after missions. Boil is mostly amused by Kenobi’s apparent death wish, but he isn’t like their medic, or Cody: he doesn't have to deal with the fallout when Kenobi comes back to the Negotiator so much worse off than his men.

“Why don’t we give him one o’ yours armours?” Wupi had slurred, half out of his blacks and staring into his cup like it would relieve him of his duty. “S’General’s too nice to lose someone else’s.”

Wooley had jerked his attention from his own cup and stared at Cody because that... that wasn’t a bad idea.

And because Wupi is too hungover the next day to do anything about it himself, it’s Wooley that starts the task of finding and retrofitting pieces of clone armour to fit their general (their “wonderfully tiny" general, as Wupi had put before passing out in his chair). It takes a few days, bouncing between three different quartermasters and Commander Tano for input on how to wear it over more traditional Jedi clothes, but Wooley finally amasses something close to a full set that they might convince Kenobi to wear, and then goes around giving each member of the Ghost Company a few pieces to paint.

Cody tries not to think about why Wooley gives him the chestplate. He tries really hard.

There’s something to be said about family giving each other armour, of course, Cody doesn’t think Wooley or Boil or Wupi or Waxer are trying to woo their general, and it shows in the pieces of armour they choose to paint, but the breastplate is... forward, when not given in a familial sense, and Cody can’t pretend that he is. Giving it in a familial sense. Kriff.

Ghost Company all sit together in the empty mess one night, Cody having strategically made sure their sleeping shifts line up, and they paint the pieces while drinking more of Waxer’s rotgut and pretending they don’t have a battle tomorrow that they might not win. Cody’s men paint each piece to match their own, so that Kenobi’s set is a mix of bits of each of them. They aren’t quite sure how it works for natborn Mandalorians, there were limits on what the Kaminoins let the Cuy’val Dar teach them, but this is as close as they can get to claiming Ken— Obi-Wan as one of the vode. The meaning won’t be lost on him.

Cody carefully paints his sun rays onto Obi-Wan’s chestplate, the orange crisp and shiny-bright, and he wonders if Obi-Wan knows the meaning of colours on beskar’gam. He seems to know a lot about Mandalorian culture that even the clones don’t, but Cody has never pushed to know more about why, not when it makes Obi-Wan clam up like that.

Boil finishes quickly, and just as quickly gets completely smashed to the point he’s singing the last raunchy jig they’d picked up planet-side, and it’s almost calming to see him so relaxed. Waxer smiles fondly at his brother and switches his cup for one of water instead, shaking his head at Wooley’s disapproving glare.

Cody waits until the others have gone to bed to ask for the medic’s steady hand, to help him stencil a beskar’ta right above the sternum. He isn’t sure if he’s ever seen another vode with a beskar’ta, and perhaps it’s a little presumptuous for Cody to give Obi-Wan one without discussing it with him first, but he can offer no greater protection to his general. The way Wupi doesn’t say anything when Cody carefully paints in the lines says more about his relationship with Obi-Wan than he’d really like to admit.

Cody isn’t there when Wooley presents the armour to him, but when Obi-Wan joins them in the hangar before descent planet-side, he wears every piece as if it were the regalia of some ancient royal, and not a cobbled-together attempt to keep him alive. The rest of the 212th hide their stares inside their buckets, and Obi-Wan still wears his outer robe over it all, but Ghost Company all preen at the sight of their general not only protected, but in their colour and crests.

Obi-Wan smiles at Cody as they load into the shuttles, tapping a closed fist over the beskar’ta in all-too-knowing thanks. So he knows at least the familial connotations, which doesn’t bode well for Cody’s half hope that that’s all he knows.

Crys claps Cody on the shoulder with an eyebrow wiggle, and Cody wishes Jango hadn’t taught them a damn thing.

Day three without water, even with the Force sustaining him, leaves Obi-Wan more than a little delirious. The Nikto bounty hunter that thought they could somehow convince Count Dooku that they’d captured the famed Negotiator grows increasingly agitated as the hours roll by, and Obi-Wan wishes he had better presence of mind to appreciate it.

They have him on his knees and strung up in chains like a barbarian, and stick him with a needle every three hours with some sort of Force suppressor that makes him even more incoherent — Obi-Wan is fairly sure they’re over-drugging him. Actually, perhaps the Force isn’t sustaining him properly; that would certainly explain a lot.

The morning of day four in the brig of a ship Obi-Wan can’t remember the make of, the Nikto starts picking through his removed armour, with scathing comments about the colour and fact that it had come from “cannon-fodder slaves that are better put-down than eating up the galaxy’s resources”, and oh, Obi-Wan wishes he could rend them limb from limb.

“A bastardisation of Mando armour, you know,” the Nikto grumbles, sending Obi-Wan a pitying look when all he can do is grunt angrily. “Look, this even has an iron heart; what poor kriffing fool told you you were allowed to wear such a mark?” Scoffing, the Nikto discards their cloak to slip on Obi-Wan’s chestplate; every last scrap of energy in Obi-Wan screams at the wrongness, and he jerks in his chains.

The Nikto startles and doesn’t get to fastening the sides as they stare at their prisoner. “You shouldn’t have any mobility left,” they say in part surprise, part anger, getting back to their feet to drag the small medical crate of suppressors back across the room. They kick it open and pull out an almost-empty vial, but don’t get to the needles before a proximity alarm goes off.

They drop the vial and grab the blaster from their hip, and barely get it up in time for the single door to explode inwards, Ghost Company forcing their way into the room before the smoke has even cleared. And Obi-Wan trusts his men, his family, with every Force-forsaken bit of him, which means he promptly passes out at the sight of them.

He doesn’t wake in safety, rather with a vibroblade pressed to his throat and a hand twisting cruelly in his hair. His vision is filled with white and orange and warmth, before his brain catches up to what he’s actually seeing, and he focuses on the blank helmets of his men. The suppressors in his system do nothing to hide the molten metal anger that leaks into the Force all around them, and Obi-Wan must look worse than he thought, if Cody’s hand is trembling on his blaster.

‘Easy,’ Obi-Wan whispers without moving his lips, Cody giving the smallest of jerks so Obi-Wan knows the message is received.

‘Sir?’ Cody shifts on his feet, the Nikto saying something from behind Obi-Wan that’s surely full of gloating and threat, but Cody’s helmet is tilted towards Obi-Wan, his presence fluttering in the Force like a lamp in the dark.

‘I’m not quite sure how you’re managing this,’ Obi-Wan admits, with half a thought to the cosmic implication of Cody giving him a beskar’ta, which has meaning even outside Mandalore, outside even the Force. ‘But my lovely captor is weak on their left side, an old injury, I think.’

‘He’s wearing your armour,’ Cody all but growls and raises his blaster properly, and the Nikto must sense the change as they nervously fumble the vibroblade and cut through the collar of Obi-Wan’s tunic.

And Obi-Wan is tired, he’s been in chains for four days with drugs he’s never encountered burning the ends of his nerves and cutting off an entire sense he has never been without, so he looks up until he meets Cody’s eyes squarely. ‘Then relieve them of it.’

‘With pleasure, sir.’

Mando’a: Vode An — "Brothers All" (a Mando’a war chant taught to the clones by Jango and the Cuy’val Dar) Cuy’val Dar — “Those who no longer exist”, group of 75 Mando’ade and 25 others put together by Jango to train the clones beskar’gam — Armour made of beskar, “Mandalorian Iron” that was actually probably a steel alloy beskar’ta — “Iron heart”, the elongated hex-shape common in Mandalorian armour designs (great post here comparing them to katana tsuba). also called ka’rta beskar or “heart of the iron”

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lokigodofaces · 3 years

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thoughts on loki ep 2: the variant (spoilers)

under cut to not disturb your scrolling

Overall I enjoyed so that's good

Uh frick my mind blanked so sorry if things are completely out of order

I don't know, I expected the renaissance fair to be 2012 or 2021 or 2024 (Loki's time, our time, current time in the "sacred timeline"). So I was genuinely surprised when it was in 1985.

Ok, i really like the title card thing. And how the year scrolls around. It's a nice aesthetic touch there.

I wonder why the female Loki variant chooses her locations? Does she have a thing for renaissance fairs, French cathedrals, and Oklahoma?

1985 is when Back to the Future came out. And it's y'know, one of the most popular time travel movies ever. So I think they chose that year as a reference.

Again, not liking that the minutemen only have numbers, not names. It is giving me lots of Clone Wars vibes. If you don't know anything about Clone Wars, the clones are given number identifiers by the Kaminoans. Things like CT-7567. The clones would give themselves names (CT-7567, for example, names himself Rex). A really good sign throughout the series that someone is a sketchy person is if they call the clones by their numbers. The clones don't want to be known as numbers. They are people too, they deserve names, so they come up with all sorts of creative names (Rex, Fives, Cody, Tup, Hevy, Hardcase, Echo, Waxer, Boil, Wolffe, Jesse, Kix, Fox, Hunter, Wrecker, Crosshair, Omega, Tech, Matchstick, etc). The jedi respect this, and the only jedi that i can think of that called clones by their numbers is Krell, who fell to the dark side. the Kaminoans and other sketchy people all call them by their numbers and the clones don't like it. A big focus of the show is on the clone's agency (at the end, they all have brain chips that take away their agency and force them to kill jedi), and how the clones need to be respected. So for me to see in another series that people are only given numbers is bad. What's worse is that the minutemen are fine with this. They don't see it as dehumanizing or belittling. They are brainwashed into being okay with it. Which says a thing or two about the Time Keepers.

did. did the renaissance fair really have Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" for their renaissance themed fight? Is this normal? Was it normal in the '80's? We saw later that the female Loki can do electronic stuff. Did she rig it to play it? For the vibes?

Also the stuff before the song was about fighting for a princess, and in the end she kidnaps C-20.

Okay, btw, I'm just gonna say Lady Loki for a while because no one has explicitly said Sylvie yet, so I'm going to refer to di Martino as Loki until she or another calls her Sylvie. Cool? Cool.

I was thinking the "Holding Out for a Hero" fight would be the roomba fight or something. It is such a good song that has huge potential for this genre. Why did they use it in a lame fight as that one?

When Lady Loki did the spell on C-20, it looked similar to what Wanda and Agatha can do. As in, it had similar visuals.

Loki reading a random magazine he finds while sitting with his feet on the desk bored out of his mind because he has to learn sh*t is a MOOD.

What is Miss Minutes? She can jump around anywhere, and pop into computers. But she can't be just a projection. She took the effort to dodge Loki swatting at her, so that may mean she was corporeal. She also could be something similar to the Kree's Supreme Intelligence?

So, did Mobius give Loki the shirt, tie, and slacks, but really didn't give him the jacket until they had to call him in? What? That makes no sense? Did the TVA not have any jackets with the variant label? Did someone have to custom design a jacket for Loki?

What is up with this show giving me things I wanted to see only in holographic form? First we saw Coulson's death, and now Loki in his Jotun form in a holograph of another variant.

Okay, Loki being someone the TVA has to constantly deal with is very on brand. Loki is a creature of chaos, of course he's going to unknowingly rebel against the sacred timeline.

Also, headcanon that the Jotun Loki we see is king of Jotunheim because that would be epic.

Also, for personal reasons I choose to believe there is a Loki variant that defeated the Avengers and immediately went queer rights.

Loki's reaction to there being many Loki variants. He's seen what his life is supposed to be. I think he is even more upset that the TVA often deals with him, that there are so many things that could have been instead if it weren't for the TVA and the "sacred timeline."

Also, I totally think Mobius was waiting for another Loki to show up to help him defeat Lady Loki. They get them so often, it makes sense.

Loki explaining the difference between illusion projection and duplication was great. And very helpful to me personally understanding lore. Also, Mobius, get your crap together. If you're a Loki expert, figure this stuff out.

Loki calling the TVA out on propaganda, we love that.

The wolf quote is actually very nice, I quite like it.

Okay, the TVA doesn't even bury or cremate or do any sort of ritual for their fallen minutemen, they just reset the timeline. Which to me seems like another way to show how little the TVA actually care for their workers.

There are statues of the Time Keepers in Ravonna's office. The camera pays extra attention to it. Keep reading for more about Time Keepers and cinematography choices.

What. What sort of relationship does Ravonna and Mobius have? What is going on there? I am really confused.

Who is this "analyst on the side?" What is going on there?

Ravonna is MEGA SUS. Along with that, the Time Keepers are mega sus.

She signs R. Slayer. Yeah. Slayer. Not at all subtle, Marvel. Letting us know that she'll do the deed if needed.

Mobius you are sending me mixed signals. What do you want?

Okay, Mobius saying Loki was a "cold, scared boy" and an "ice runt" and stuff was totally a jab at Loki being Jotun.

Mobius saying Loki is insecure because of Lady Loki is...probably true.

With the elevator, the camera stops and focuses on the Time Keepers.

The Creation of the TVA, the beginning of time, the end of time, all classified. That is sus.

Loki almost crying over Ragnarok was good. Let him cry over the destruction of his home.

Loki being the one to discover something the TVA had no idea about after a day is on brand for Loki. And it shows how the TVA really are vulnerable.

Mobius: Really? In front of my salad?

No but the object lesson was well done and actually did help me understand what Loki was talking about.

Casey! Casey drinks grape juice! Imagine how confusing this is for Casey though. Loki is captured, threatens to gut you like a fish (whatever that means), and now he's dressed like an analysist, stealing your juice box. Does Loki get Casey more juice?

Honestly, Loki looking at everything logically and scientifically is fantastic. Adds to the science = magic thing Marvel's got going on, since Loki is a sorcerer.

Loki saying volcanoes are cool is fun. I agree. Volcanoes mean the planet is geologically active, which means we won't die. Also, there is a volcano named Loki on one of Jupiter's moons. I wonder if the creators knew that and put Loki in Pompeii because he is already linked with volcanoes.

Mobius telling Loki to start off small and Loki completely disregarding that felt very personal to me.

Loki being absolutely chaotic and telling everyone they were going to die while speaking perfect Latin was iconic. I want more of that content. Let the man be buckwild.

Again, Loki finding something out after a day that the TVA never knew about is on brand.

"Be free, my horned friends, be free!" I love that way too much.

Mobius being obsessed with jet skis wasn't something I expected, but I'm down for it. Heck, even Loki admitted they were cool.

The discussion on beliefs is going to lead to saying the Time Keepers are bullcrap. Hopefully.

Grapes and nuts are "candy" on Asgard. So, when Loki was eating grapes in Ragnarok, we can interpret that as him eating M&Ms. Second, this might add to something I've seen around here. I've seen things about a book somewhere with Loki saying chocolate fountains are mythical (which is really funny to me). So, I guess Asgard really doesn't have chocolate.

Oh my gosh, so many apocalypses between 2047 and 2051...hopefully none of those happen in real life.

Roxxcart is probably part of Roxxon, something that has been around in Iron Man movies.

Lady Loki got the shovel thing from Roxxcart that she left in Oklahoma! The minutemen said it was from the early third millenia, which is where we are now! 2050 also fits that category!

I saw something about the file saying Class 8 hurricane...there are only 5 classes...which means this is a crazy storm.

Does B-15 want Loki dead? This is a legitimate question, because I think she does. Dead or pruned.

Loki looking around at the storm, I love it. This could be him loving science, or him missing Thor, since Thor creates storms. Also, at this point Loki probably things Thor dies shortly after him in the sacred timeline, so Loki would be particularly sentimental about Thor.

I love Loki drying himself off and not anyone else. And B-15 yelling about his magic. And Loki's motions are so fluid, it's so aesthetically pleasing, I love it.

Dudes, I thought B-15 was going to try to prune Loki when they were alone.

Okay, was Lady Loki bsing about the azalea sale, or does Roxxcart actually do that? I want to know.

Wunmi Mosaku did a really good job as Lady Loki, I loved it.

Loki being annoyed at Lady Loki and saying he understood how Thor felt, does that insinuate Loki can do what Lady Loki was doing?

B-15 and C-20 were both very shaken after being possessed by Lady Loki. I wonder how that felt for them? We've had different explanations of mind control/brainwashing/similar from Clint, Bucky, Daisy, Mack, Fitz, and Monica in the MCU (including AoS). I wonder what is specific to Lady Loki's possession.

C-20 kept going on about something being real. What was that about?

C-20 revealed the location of the Time Keepers to Lady Loki!

Lady Loki not wanting to be called Loki could be a sign she is Sylvie.

There's something weird where Loki's voice echoed around while the camera focused on Lady Loki. Maybe she's telepathic?

Someone needs to keep a tracker on people telling Loki this isn't his story in a show literally about him.

But, that does add to themes for his life, and how everything was always about someone else in his life. He was always a supporting character for Thor, for Odin, for Thanos. Now, even in his own story, everyone insists he doesn't matter.

I was wondering what the reset charges would be used for. I wasn't expecting a massive bombing of the sacred timeline! Wow! That was unexpected and I loved it!

Okay, this isn't from me, this is from New Rockstars. But to list all the places mentioned on chronomonitors, either bombed or not: Knowhere, Barcelona, Niflheim, Dartford, Phong Nha, Lisbon, Vormir, Thorton, Cookeville, Asgard, Rome, Sakaar, Barichara, Porvoo, Ego, Titan, New York City, Tokyo, Hala, Kingsport, Xandar, Beijing, Madrid, Portland, Jotunheim. Bolded are other planets. Those are almost all the planets visited in the MCU. So fun easter eggs there!

I like Lady Loki's aesthetic. The fingerless gloves, the cloak, I love it. And YES SHE ISN'T SEXUALIZED. So many genderbent characters are excuses to sexualize women. But Lady Loki is just as covered as the male Lokis.

Lady Loki just...left the time door open for Loki to follow...for a really long time...I'm worried he's running into a trap.

What is Loki going to do now?

Theory time y'alls: Lady Loki bombed the sacred timeline to flush the minutemen out of the TVA, leaving it defenseless. And she's gonna go after the Time Keepers themselves. We know she gets into the TVA from trailer footage, and that's what I think we're gonna see next episode. I think she (like the Loki we are following) is upset over the lack of free will, and she plans to change that. That's why she wasn't interested in helping Loki "take over" the TVA, because she doesn't want to become the leader of a new TVA, she wants it destroyed.

Alright, back to the Time Keepers stuff. They keep focusing on the middle Time Keeper. Even in the end credits they have a weird cut to focus directly on his face. I'm not 100% on this, but I like this theory. That face is similar to Jonathan Major's, the actor confirmed to be Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Kang is a well known time travelling villain in Marvel. Maybe he is Kang, and is using variant versions of himself (that's a Kang thing in the comics) to mess with the timeline, and no one expects that from him. Also, Renslayer was his S/O for a bit in the comics, and they keep framing her in front of that one Time Keeper's face. I feel like this would be a good way to set up Quantumania and to show how sus the Time Keepers are.

Also, Loki was absolutely adorable the entire episode. And he got to sleep! Yay for him!

Again, I enjoyed, and can't wait for next week!

#loki (2021)#loki (2021) spoilers #loki (2021) review #loki laufeyson #tva loki #dimartino loki #sylvie lushton #mobius m mobius #ravonna renslayer #hunter b 15 #hunter c 20 #miss minutes #time keepers #aaaaaaaa im excited for the next episode

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clonesandmoans · 4 years

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I know the clones are all hardwired to be Dad and all that jazz but as someone who doesn't want kids I have to ask, which clones would be ok with or even prefer a partner who doesn't want kids/a childless relationship?

let’s face it, children are intense & highkey stressful. with this in mind, there are a few that i think would be more than happy to not have a mini-them running around (this isn’t to say they wouldn’t be good with hypothetical children, just that they’re down for whatever you’re okay with and won’t push for kids. children, no children, as long as they have you they’re good)

cody, for starters — idk why but he was the first one i thought of

slick

jesse

fives

echo (post-skako) (pre-citadel echo might actually want them tho)

hevy

dogma

tech

crosshair

hunter

doom

gree

sinker

bacara

colt

thire

edit: alpha-17

there would be a day where you may think about the idea of your boo wanting a kid and you not, thus resulting in a lot of anxiety and possible crying. they’d immediately worry and try to get to the bottom of why you’re upset and are shocked when you tell them “i’m scared you’ll leave me because i don’t want children”

their love for you wouldn’t be changed by the fact you don’t want to adopt/push a whole ass other human out of your body (honestly the biological process frightened a few of them). they love you, not a hypothetical other person that won’t ever exist or be in your lives without consent of both parties.

#jj #vodka aunt #soft sunday

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majorshiraharu · 3 years

Text

Echoes In My Mind; Chapter 8 - Concerned Commander - Echo x Reader Fic

Previous Chapter

————————————————- Content Rating: Mature+ (18+)

Warnings: Kissing

If there are any warning labels I’m missing, please inform me.

Rendezvousing = meeting up with someone at a location Notes: Y/O/N = Your character's original name (before they went into hiding) ————————————————-

A/N: I’m so sorry this took so long, I’ve had this sitting in my drafts for forever, my notes pad deleted most of this chapter and I was struggling with remember what I had written and then I had a bunch of health problems so I’ve neglected this fic :( So I’m just going to go ahead and post this chapter so you’re not waiting 3 more months. Sorry <3

-------------------------------------------------

Rendezvousing with your bounty hunter friend, you catch them up on the plan as they join you walking onboard the ship; you introduce the bad batch to them. They're unsure of if your plan will work but Echo and the others assure them that it will work out, that everyone just needed to stay focused and get in and out as fast as possible, knowing the longer everyone was there the more dangerous it would become. Stealing away Echo for a moment you slid into your room with him, wrapping your arms around his neck as the door closed behind him, running your fingers through his curly black hair. It had grown a lot since you first met him; it was long enough that you could actually pull on it. Your nails brushing against his scalp makes him hum with delight, you ran your fingers around some of the metallic numbs that partly stuck out of his head; you knew he felt pretty insecure about a lot of his mechanical parts. He appreciated you making him feel loved no matter how he looked or what his body was made of. His eyes were closed as he enjoyed you massaging his scalp, your warm breath tickling his skin, a beautiful smile on his face. You press a smiley kiss against his mouth. His hands run along the curve of your spine making you giggle, "Echo," you whispered kissing him, the smiling makes it hard to hold your lips together, opening your eyes to look at him seeing him looking at you. "Do you always watch me when I kiss you?" You laughed, watching a grin spread across his face. "Sometimes, it's hard to take my eyes off of you." "Stop it," you joked, kissing him more passionately, this time he closed his eyes to enjoy the feeling. "I love you," he said as you pulled away, Tech's voice came on over the comm system saying they were getting ready to land. "We should get going, lover boy." He takes your hand in his, opening the door walking back out to the rest of the crew, "Oh, I love you too," you said turning him around to kiss him one last time before both of you walked into the main area. "Getting in some action before our little mission," your friend jokes, making you and Echo get defensive and flustered. "I'm just teasing you," they said, cutting you both off in your nonsensical babbling. "I hate you," you joked, hitting their arm. "Oh, well, I hate you too, that's why I came along on this mission," they teased back making you roll your eyes as you shook your head, trying to hide a grin. "Also, since we need to steel uniforms from the Empire, shouldn't we take off ours?" They asked, looking at the armor everyone was wearing. "Well, take out whom we need and then bring them back here so we can switch," Hunter explained. "I guess that makes sense," they said, tapping a finger against their chin as they thought it over. "We'll be landing on the outskirts, make sure you don't get spotted by any patrols," Tech said landing the ship, "Call me if there's anything you need, Echo should be able to handle any panels you encounter but in case there's one he can hack patch me through and I'll get it." "I'll do my best," Echo said with a weary smile. "You'll be fine, Echo," you say, placing a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, his smile growing as he looked at you. "Crosshair, Wrecker, if we need an extraction, be ready, okay? We might not have much time to escape if something goes wrong," Hunter ordered as he walked to depart the ship. "Understood," they both say, wishing you guy's luck as the rest of you followed Hunter out of the ship, putting on your helmet and drawing your weapons as the four of you snuck through the forest area leading to the base. Avoiding the patrols you radio Tech to be careful, hoping they wouldn't notice the rather large ship between the thick line of trees. — Echo stuck by your side until Hunter ordered Echo to come with him and your bounty hunter friend to go with you, since you and your friend would be stealing uniforms from officers it was best that you go together. Meanwhile, Echo and Hunter got some Stormtrooper armor. Luckily it was easy to find some on their own, quickly taking them out and dragging them back to the ship where they awaiting your arrival. Sadly, things were going as smoothly for you and your friend. The only officers you spotted were hanging out in a group, no way of splitting them up that you could find. It took a while of waiting and a rather uncomfortable conversation between you and your friend, "So you dating that guy or what, I know we haven't talked in a while but I feel like that's some worthwhile news you could have sent me," they teased. "Oh shut it, we're not dating.... besides you could have contacted me at any point and never did." "Geez, no need to get snippy, also you may not realize it, but he's totally got a thing for you, like the way he looked at you." "Yes, I noticed, why do you care." "Ohhh, so you've learned, good to know my teaching stuck with you. I care because you're both adorable and I enjoy teasing you," they replied putting a hand on your shoulder. "Sorry I'm just stressed with this mission and I'm not in a good mood, I don't mean to be snippy..." "I know... so this Commander Cody used to be your friend... any idea why he joined the Empire?" "He didn't choose to join them, he's a clone, they don't give them much choice sadly..." "Oh, I see... Well, he's lucky to have you as a friend, willing to get him out of there." "I don't know, I'm worried he won't come with us." "Why?" "When I spoke to him last, he just wanted me to be safe and take care of the others, I'm just concerned he'll reject our offer so we don't get in trouble." "Well, if it comes to it, I'll happily knock the guy out and take him with us." "What?! You can't just do that!" "Yes I can, just watch me," they teased, quietly giggling to themselves. "Ugh, if you do, he won't be happy." "I honestly don't care I'm just here to help you and get him out of here no matter the means." "I won't let you knock him out, besides there are perfectly good Imperials all around us, have fun knocking them out but not Cody." "But this Cody guy is an Imperial dear..." "I swear I can't win with you." "You did once, and that's why I'm here, and that's also why you're one of my only friends." "You call that winning," you snapped back being sarcastic. "Ah, you're learning young Padawan," they said, showing their admiration for your quick comeback. "Now can we please deal with these guys, the others are waiting for us," you said pointing out two Imperial Officers who just spit off from the group. "Ready when you are, just lead the way," they said, sneaking to closer cover with you. After following them for a bit, they end up in just the perfect place for a quick takedown, knocking them out and dragging them quickly and quietly back to the ship.

"What took you guys so long?" Hunter teased, crossing his arms as he shook his head, Echo bashfully smiling behind him as he finished putting on the Stormtrooper armor. "Got these guys," your friend said, kicking the unconscious Imperials, "They kept hanging out with their little friends so we had to wait till they split off." "Now let's get these disguises on, I'd rather not be here longer than is necessary," you said, helping your friend remove the uniforms, tying up the Imperials before all of you set off. "This armor sucks, I can hardly see anything," Echo scoffed, trying to adjust the helmet. "Yeah, not the idea armor for my kind of fighting," Hunter said. "Ha, we got lucky these uniforms are pretty comfy," your friend boasted. "Just try not to act suspicious," you told them with a grin, earning a laugh from them. As they get to a locked door, the three of you keep watch while Echo works, seeing some Imperials walking straight for you guys everyone begins to panic. "Echo any time now," Hunter said. "He's working on it," you scoffed while trying to keep an eye on those headed towards you. "Even if he gets it, what do we do?" Your friend asked, positioning themselves to be ready for a fight. "Calm down, they haven't done anything yet, just wait," you say looking over at them. "Excuse us, we require your assistance," one of the Imperials says to you and your friend. Both of you look at each other confused, still using your bodies to hide Echo behind you. Luckily they hadn't noticed him yet and were instead focused on the two of you, awaiting your response. "Yes sir, how can we help you," your friend finally replied after looking at their badges. - "Come with us please, there's an error with one of the terminals and we haven't been able to fix it." "Why do you think we can fix it?" Your friend hissed, annoyed that they're bothering you with something a mechanic could easily fix. Suddenly you remember the scans Tech had gotten off the base. If they were talking about the terminal in the main building it would put you close the where Cody was. It would be risky to get to him going that way, hence why the lot of you were sneaking in from a less watched corner, but if they were willing to just let you walk in the front door, why not go? Jabbing your friend with your elbow, you apologize to the Imperials for their behavior, "What terminal requires fixing, and what's wrong with it? I have some experience with those things and can take a crack at it." They look at each other, almost like they were nervous or ashamed, "It's the main terminal, don't tell anyone, but we spilled some caf on it and not it won't start back up." "If you tell anyone you'll regret it, got it!?" The other one said sternly, staring the both of you down, still somehow not noticing Echo who was kneeled down on the ground. - Your friend snickers some before you jab them with your elbow again, glaring at them like your eyes could kill. "We'd be happy to help, and I promise we won't tell anyone," you say saluting them. Turning in their heels, they motioned for you to follow them, talking to each other as you and your friend stayed silent, looking back at Echo and Hunter who were now on their own. "What do we do now?" Echo asked, knowing without the both of you they had no business being in this building and would easily get spotted. "We'll have to just try to get through, you're an arc trooper after all, as long as we can at least find his location we could contact them," Hunter says, looking down at Echo as he finally got the door unlocked. Standing up he realizes something, the Imperials said the main terminal, that was closer to Cody's office, "Hunter, the terminal they're going to is close to Cody's office, if one of them can slip away they could bring him out this way as long as we keep a lookout." "Echo, that's a good idea, now just to figure out how to get one of them out of there." "We could fake it, I know Cody I could easily comm them and order them to his office." Patting Echo on the shoulder for his quick thinking and excellent plan, he agrees. Both of them sneak inside, hiding at the end of one of the halls behind some crates. - After a little meddling Echo finds out how to contact you guys, but instead of calling you your friend is the one who received the call instead. At first, they tried to ignore the beeping and blinking coming from their wrist. The two Imperials quickly look over to both of you, "Aren't you going to answer that?" One of them asked them. "Uh yeah, excuse me a moment." Damn them, they left you here with these two watching over you, making sure you actually were fixing it. Walking out into the hall but still within ear range of the snooping Imperials, your friend answered the call.

"Hello? Who is this?" They asked. "This is Commander Cody, I require you in my office now to discuss some information." "Oh um sir, I'm currently assisting someone with repairs, could it ---" "I said now, get a mechanic to fix the problems unless you've suddenly become one." Good thing the terminal obstructed your face, you could tell it wasn't Cody, assuming it was Echo impersonating him made it hard for you not to laugh. The two Imperials quickly walk out to your friend, with terrified expressions they told them to go, that you could handle the repairs, and it was wise not to upset the commander. "I'll be right there, sir," your friend said before turning off the comm device. "Yeah, best not upset the commander or keep him waiting. Go," one of the men said, almost pushing your friend down the hall. Setting a quick pace, they walk through the halls. They didn't know Cody or Echo well enough to know it wasn't actually Cody. Knocking on the door yields no response from inside, "Kriff, where is he?! This is his office...man, I better not be at the wrong place," they say studying the area, confirming that they were in fact in the right place. "This is my office, are you looking for something?" Cody said, startling your friend. "Blast, did you have to scare me like that?? Oh, um, Commander Sir!" They said, quickly saluting. "What do you want, and who are you? I've never seen you on this base before," he replied. "I'm Y/N's friend, I'm here with a rescue team to get you out!" "I already told her I won't be going, there's no reason for everyone to put their life at risk for mine." He coldly replied, unlocking his office and walking inside. Following him your friend continues to try to talk sense into him, "Look, I don't know you, but Y/N is my friend and I would do anything for her especially since I owe her for saving my life. So can you give me a break and just come with me, there's a ship waiting for you not too far from here." "I'm not going and nothing you say will change my mind, Y/N was - is my friend and I won't needlessly put her life at risk," Cody said in an angry tone crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back in his chair. "Well then, I guess you give me no choice..." They said huffing. "What do you --" before he gets a chance to finish they pull out the hidden blaster and stun him, "You better not be heavy," they grumbled, walking over to drag his body with them. "Echo, Hunter, come in I completed my task," they said over the comlink. "Oh, good work, is Y/N with you, we're covering the hallway here by the exit but not sure how long we can keep this up," Hunter replied. "No, she's still off helping those knuckleheads. Maybe try to contact her, pretend to be the Commander and order her over here, I could use help to drag him out of here." "Wait WHAT — what did you do??" They heard Echo shout. "Please tell me you only stunned him..." Hunter added. "Of course, what did you think I did, I might be a bounty hunter but I'm not going to shoot this guy." "I mean, technically you did shoot him," Echo said sarcastically. "Listen here you, I just stunned him, he'll be waking up in a bit so get Y/N over here to help me." "Copy that," the comm cut out. It had been a few minutes, and still no response, and you were nowhere in sight. Assuming their attempt didn't work, your friend tried getting Cody out of there on their own. Damit he was heavy, good thing they were strong enough to still lift him, draping his arm over their shoulder and grabbing his waist. It took a while, but slowly they got down the hallway, having to duck into cover a few times to avoid the patrols and random Imperials walking about. Luckily, the exit wasn’t far away.

#echoes in my mind #finally updated this lmao #echo x reader #arc trooper echo x reader #clone trooper echo x reader #the bad batch #female reader #use of y/n #chapter 8 #i'm sorry this took so long to post #star wars #the clone wars #the clone wars fic #clone force 99 #clone trooper hunter #clone trooper tech #clone trooper crosshair #clone trooper wrecker

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wanderinginksplot · 3 years

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Clone Trooper Rambles

Part journal, part creative writing, fully weird. Also, this one is really long. Other rambles can be found here.

Bad Dream

“Hey, are you okay?” Echo asked gently, stepping a bit faster to walk beside me.

“Yeah, of course,” I told him with a smile. “Why do you ask?”

“You haven’t spoken in an hour and a half,” Trapper answered for Echo, walking on his other side.

“Oh.” I thought about it for a moment. “I think I’m just tired. I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

“You don’t say,” Crosshair said sourly. “I thought you made a habit of waking up gasping at three in the morning.”

“It was an unusually vivid dream,” I admitted, embarrassed for a reason I couldn’t quite pin down.

“Do you remember any of it?” Echo asked, stepping over a rough section of ground.

“Not much, but there was one thing…” I shivered, but cut myself off with a laugh. “It’s probably nothing.”

“What is?” Crosshair sounded less than thrilled to be asking, but all of the troopers eyed me expectantly.

I frowned, scrubbing tiredly at my face. “Uh… I remember someone laughing.”

“Laughing?” Trapper repeated. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“You wouldn’t think so,” I agreed slowly. “And then this guy told me, ‘He’s looking for you. He’s going to find you. You can’t hide from him.’ That sort of thing.”

“Who can’t you hide from?” Echo’s posture had straightened slightly.

I shook my head. “Probably no one. I was reading something mysterious before I went to sleep and that probably caused it.”

“You look… scared,” Trapper observed hesitantly. “Are you sure you have no idea who the guy was talking about? Or who the guy was?”

“It could be- Well, not really, though. The guy talking was…” I thought back, trying to capture the wispy strands of the dream even as it was slipping away as half-remembered dreams tend to do. Like a camera flash, I could see the face of the man who had been warning me.

I didn’t know him, not that I could remember, but he was certainly dead. Not only that, but his mouth had been strange, almost like it had been cut.

“Miss me, sweets?” a voice whispered in my ear.

I jumped, hard. I couldn’t help it.

“What is it?” Echo asked urgently.

I was already absorbed in studying the immediate area. “Hang on, I need to concentrate,” I muttered absently.

Metaphysics are hard to explain. In this particular case, it was like scanning everything around me, but not visually. I was looking for a general sense of something, a trace rather than a person. It took quite a bit of focus, but the adrenaline was working in my favor.

“We need to call Captain Rex,” Trapper said decisively.

“I’ll do it,” Crosshair instantly agreed, lifting his comlink to his mouth even as he eyed the area with suspicion.

Dimly, I recognized that the three troopers had all put their helmets on, and both Echo and Crosshair had lowered their rangefinders. Each man held at least one blaster, scanning the area with their eyes at least as hard as I was doing with whatever metaphysical nonsense I could manage.

When Rex joined us, he did so at a brisk walk, dual blasters drawn and rangefinder down. Clearly, Crosshair had managed to brief him on the situation. What he knew of it, anyway.

“What’s going on?” Rex asked, clearly tense.

“We were talking about the dream she had last night,” Echo told him. “She jumped like she had been shot and she hasn’t said much or moved at all since.”

Rex was standing directly in front of me a moment later. “Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, I can,” I told him distantly. “Hang on…”

“We need to move somewhere more protected than this,” Rex told the troopers, seeming to recognize that I was absorbed in something else. “Send out an all-call, put all troopers on alert.”

“For what?” Crosshair asked.

“There’s a threat,” Rex answered grimly. “I don’t know what it is yet, but I can feel it.”

I finished scanning the area and nodded. “Let’s get somewhere a little more private. There are some things I probably should tell you.”

Rex had already started moving by the time I finished speaking, the contingent of guards traveling with us as we walked. “I’m going to have Cody, Wolffe, Fox, Boss, and Hunter meet us. They’ll need to be briefed on the situation as well.”

In a very short amount of time, we were all hidden away in a semi-secluded area. Everyone wore their helmets, but I could feel the expectant looks and took a deep breath before I got started.

“I’ve told you guys that you aren’t the first group of characters who shows up for me. Almost every story I’ve written has been with a character talking in my ear. Well, there was one… he wasn’t… uh, he wasn’t good for me, I guess you’d say. He’s called the Joker.”

No one moved, so I kept talking. “I was writing a one-shot about him and it went pretty smoothly. He’s insane, but he can be charming when he wants to be. When it gives him an advantage. Well, I wrote it and posted it and there was a good response. People wanted more and he agreed to help me write more of the story.”

“That’s where things went bad,” I said, dropping my gaze to the ground. It was easier than looking anyone in the face when I admitted my own stupidity. “He was always around, saying and doing the most twisted things. The more I wrote for him, the more I started to think like him. I don’t have much experience with insanity - other than the whole character thing - but I think I was getting close to something bad happening to my mind.”

“The worst part is, I can’t even blame him,” I laughed as I said it, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “I knew who he was and that he thinks it’s fun to make people go as crazy as he is. I knew better, but I got caught up in writing a good story. It was more my fault than his.”

“When I figured out what was happening, I ended the story,” I finished. “There were supposed to be five more chapters or so, but I couldn’t keep writing for him. I was scared of losing myself. I ended the story and shut him out. It was hard, probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but the worst part is that it didn’t entirely… work. He still pops up every now and then.”

“Pops up,” Rex repeated tonelessly.

“Yeah,”I agreed. “He just comes in, torments me for a while, tries to break my mind, and leaves when I can force him away. It has happened three or four times in the past few years. I just need to know when he’s coming so I can be ready. The dream may have been a sign that he’ll be here soon. Don’t worry, though - I’ll handle him. You guys just lay low for a week or two and I’ll get him out as soon as I can.”

“We aren’t going to do that,” Cody said slowly, glancing around at the other commanding officers. “We’re here. We may be able to put a stop to this guy once and for all.”

“You can’t do that,” I told him flatly. “I don’t think any of you guys can be killed in your current state. If I do something that harms someone badly enough that they die - not that I do that on purpose - they just forget what they’ve done here and come back with no memory. They just start over.”

“We can give him something else to focus on, then,” Boss offered.

“Blaster bolts can be pretty distracting,” Wolffe agreed menacingly.

“He’ll try to kill you,” I warned them. “I can’t take the risk that anyone will get hurt.”

“You just said we can’t be hurt,” Hunter reminded.

I had to stop for a moment. That was an excellent point and a flaw in my logic that I hadn’t previously considered. “Maybe you guys can hurt each other since you’re in a different plane? If he’s on the same plane, he could hurt you.”

“But then we’d be able to hurt him,” Rex said. “And there are a lot more of us than there are of him.”

“Let us help you,” Cody requested gently. I shot him a look, reminded that he had served with Obi-Wan Kenobi for most of the war. “Please.”

“I… I can’t ask all of you to take this risk,” I said eventually.

“What if we made it a volunteer effort?” Fox asked. “Only men who understand the risks and agree to continue guard duty will watch for him.”

“That might work,” I agreed, disgruntled by the neat way that had worked out.

“Good,” Rex said. “Tell me everything about the Joker, I’ll brief the men about him, and build a list of volunteers. For now, I’m assigning at least one man from each battalion to guard you. Today is considered high-risk. If you see anything suspicious, tell them and we’ll send backup to your location.”

Less than two hours later, Rex cheerfully reported that every trooper had volunteered to stay on guard duty, even fully understanding the risks. My arguments that they couldn’t fully understand fell on deaf ears and I resigned myself to having extra guards for the foreseeable future.

The only question was: who would end up guarding who?

---

A/N - So fun fact: this is a true story. I wrote a Joker/OC story called Safety Dance and ended up having to rush an ending because I was uncomfortable with the way it was making me think. I still get deeply uncomfortable when I see pictures of Jared Leto’s Joker and Safety Dance is, to date, the only story I will never consider writing a sequel for.

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bi-naesala · 4 years

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Found you (chapter 1)

Bad Batch arc retelling (sort of) | Fives lives AU

Also on AO3

It’s still weird for Fives to be considered a war hero. Sure, he uncovered a deep conspiracy that would’ve resulted in the fall of the Republic, but going from “that di’kut Fives” to “hero of the Republic Fives” is a huge step.

What’s most weird is the amount of attention he’s getting now, and he means the positive kind of attention. That’s not even the weirdest part actually; what really bothers Fives is how tired he is of it already. It may be weird coming from Mr. Attention Whore himself, but that’s how he feels. He just doesn’t like the idea that he’s somehow more important that the rest of the vode.

Maybe that’s why he’s relieved when action calls again.

The Chancellor might’ve been found guilty of being a Sith Lord and Dooku might’ve been apprehended, but there are still some Separatist cells fighting. There aren’t many left, but this doesn’t mean that they have to act less cautious.

Here’s the weird thing: for some reason, they seem to be fighting better now. Might be desperation, but their tactics have changed; they’re more efficient, almost as if they could predict what the Republic’s next step will be. This either means that there’s a spy in their ranks or, more likely, that they have found some source of intel.

It’s Rex the one who approaches Fives first. They’ve been dancing around this theory for a while, but neither of them have had the courage to openly speak about it, at least until now. It’s far-fetched at best, but the evidence is there; besides, they’d both be lying if they said they don’t want it to be true - especially Fives.

“I think Echo’s alive.”

Here it is, what both of them have been thinking for a while. Rex’s voice is hesitant, and Fives can’t decide if it’s because he fears he won’t listen to him or - more likely - that he isn’t sure himself on how true this statement is.

“I think so too,” he quickly replies then, “You two have been working on most of these plans, and now somehow the Seppies can anticipate our moves. It can’t be a coincidence.” It would be too convenient.

It may sound unlikely, but let’s not forget who orchestrated all this. If the Supreme Chancellor himself can be guilty of being a Sith Lord, then it’s possible that what remains of the Separatists are using Echo for their strategies.

As Fives and Rex exchange a look, however, they understand what the most difficult part of this will be: making the others believe them.

The first people to be informed are General Skywalker and Cody.

Skywalker is still recovering from the discovery of the Chancellor’s true nature - they were pretty close after all, and damn now that they know the whole story, isn’t that creepy? - but he listens to their thesis with an open mind, even if it’s clear he doesn’t entirely believe it. He knows about loss and he understands why they would want to believe that, but still…

“Sometimes people just die. No matter how much you want to, you can’t bring the dead back,” he begins, thinking about all the people he has failed to protect, and it’s exactly because he understands that he continues, “But if you think that it’s worth it, we can investigate.”

Relief surges through both the clones.

“Yessir!”

Differently from Anakin, Cody goes full skeptic immediately.

“We can’t jeopardize everything just for this.”

Fives greets his teeth. How dares he speak like that about a brother? After all they’ve been fighting for he just wants to leave one of them behind?

“You can’t talk like that!” he begins, moving towards Cody with ill intent, something that Rex picks up, so he immediately grabs his arm to stop him before he does something he will regret.

“Fives, not now!”

Cody looks at them and he sighs. He understands, he truly does, but they still have to draw a line, or else this will blow up out of proportions.

“It’s not that I…” he begins defensively, but he stops himself. There’s no point in answering aggression with aggression; they’re all tired - even in its last stages the war is taking a toll on them - and doing so would help nobody. “I know it’s hard being the one who survives. It’s a burden that no regular folk can understand.” He looks at Fives. “But we can’t let this affect the wellbeing of who remains.”

At those words, Fives deflates a bit, even though it’s obvious in his eyes that he hasn’t accepted the situation yet, and honestly Cody can’t blame him. If anything happened to Rex or any of his batch mates - even Fox - he would find himself in a very similar state.

“Even if we try to do something about it, how many brothers will die for something that we’re not even sure about?”

His words are harsh, but they need to be. The sacrifice of more troopers is something they cannot afford.

Silence falls between the three, each one lost in their own thoughts.

Unexpectedly, it’s Cody the one who breaks it. His mind works constantly, and he may have found an idea to solve this problem without losing too many lives. Besides, he simply is unable to say no to Rex.

“If you truly think that this is key to understand why the Separatists are on a winning streak, then I suppose we could send a small team to investigate it.”

“A small team?” Rex asks, careful in his enthusiasm. Cody may have given in but that doesn’t mean they’re done.

“Yes, a small team,” Cody replies, and it’s obvious that he has something in mind already, and when Rex asks him, he just smiles, “You’ll see. I need to make a call.”

Clone Force 99. Nobody in Torrent Company has heard of this name.

“99, eh? Nice touch,” Rex comments, smiling sadly as he remembers his fallen vod. It’s nice seeing that someone has found a way to honor him. Fives is smiling too.

“Oh, I knew him well,” he begins, “He was the only one who believed in my cadet squad… I can’t believe it’s been so long already.” It feels like centuries have passed since 99’s death. He wonders what he would think about him; would he be proud? He’d say that he did his best, that he’s done so much good, but he still let so many vode die without being able to do anything about it. Maybe, however, he can at least save one of the people he thought he’d lost.

“Oh right, you were underdogs before coming here!” Jesse exclaims, recalling the few stories he and Echo told, “You never told us much about your Kamino days, vod.”

Fives chuckles, lightly shoving his brother - who has begun leaning closer to him - with one shoulder, colliding with Jesse’s ARC trooper armor - yeah, the di’kut really managed to get promoted.

“That’s because you were only looking for blackmail material!” he chuckles.

The truth is that he and Echo have always been a bit jealous of their shared past. They didn’t do it with malice, but it was something that tied them to each other, something special that only them shared. Remembering all the early Domino squad shenanigans was always a special occurrence for them. Even after Echo’s death - but he’s not dead, Fives knows it - he never felt like sharing that part of his past; it didn’t feel right without his brother.

“Getting back to the original topic,” Kix interrupts, “I’ve heard some things about this Clone Force 99.”

Trust Kix to do some digging before getting briefed on anything. That’s actually reassuring, at least they won’t walk in whatever Cody has planned blind.

“So?” Fives encouraged him, “What have you heard?”

“They have a 100% success rate, so they’ve got that going for them,” Kix begins, though he doesn’t look that happy about it as he should be.

“There’s a ‘but’ in here, isn’t it?”

“Well, the thing is… I haven’t found much except for that,” Kix reveals, “Even their existence is barely known!”

“Who’s their general?” Fives asks, curious and suspicious at the same time. He’s learned to be wary of secretive stuff; they usually never bode well.

“I don’t know,” Kix replies, “I don’t think they have one.”

Fives moves his gaze to Rex. What has Cody gotten them into this time? His Captain, on the other end, just shrugs.

“This means we’ll just have to find out information when we’ll meet them.”

“It doesn’t worry you that they seemingly work alone?” Jesse asks.

“They must have their reasons…” is what Rex replies with, making it clear that this is the end of the conversation, “You should get prepared, now. We’ll be departing shortly.”

“Sir yes sir!”

They meet up with Cody shortly after that.

“So, Clone Force 99, eh?” Rex asks, making Cody smirk.

“I see you already did your homework,” he comments.

“Blame Kix.” That earns a chuckle from both of them, before Rex continues, “How come nobody knows nothing about them?”

“They’re defective clones with desirable mutations. They call themselves ‘The Bad Batch’.” Huh, that doesn’t exactly spark confidence, but if Cody trusts them, then they must be worth it.

An aircraft lands - and Fives swears, the pilot must be worse the Skywalker because it’s a messy landing at best - and the main door opens.

There’s the sound of steps and four clones in full armor step outside to meet with them. They haven’t shown their faces yet but they already look different - it must be their demeanour. One of them is particularly huge - just what the hell did they feed him on Kamino?

Fives straightens his posture, watching in silence. So this is Clone Force 99.

That’s official, Fives hates these dudes.

Well, not really, or at least, not all of them. Hunter seems cool and badass - not as much as their captain of course - Wrecker is a force of nature, Tech seems chill… Yeah, the only one he actually fully hates is Crosshair. He doesn’t like people who act like they’re better than everybody else, and Crosshair surely seems to believe that he is; besides, there’s so much venom in the way he calls them regs that doesn’t sit well with Fives at all.

A peek at Jesse and Kix makes it pretty evident that he isn’t the only perplexed one. Jesse shoots at him and annoyed glance, while Kix just shrugs, already resigned to the incoming headache that this mission will cause him. Fives tries to reassure them with a smile, even though he must not be doing a great job.

Oh come on! How bad can it be?

Aaaand they lost the Marshal Commander already. Maybe Fives should’ve just shut his mouth.

At least Kix will stay with him until aid arrives, which also means that they’ve lost the medic already. They’ll have to be very careful.

Still, did those other shebs really have to show off like that? They could’ve easily handled the droids coming at them without them having to try so hard to be cool!

Not that Fives doesn’t appreciate some help - if it keeps them alive a bit more, why shouldn’t he? - but he doesn’t want to give them more excuses to gloat, especially since their main target seems to be the captain, which is not ok.

What makes him more annoyed is that, deep down, he admires these dudes. They seem to have a plan for everything. He wonders how they would fair with General Skywalker and his “screw plans” policy. Who knows, maybe he’d manage to throw them off the loop.

At least he can admit that they’re competent, though he refuses to say it out loud. He doesn’t want to verbally harass them like Kix and Jesse are doing, but he also won’t do anything to defend them. They might be competent and all, but they’re still asshole.

“You can’t talk to Captain Rex like that!”

Damn, Fives gets distracted for one second, one kriffing second, and hell breaks loose. Of course, it’s Crosshair’s and his bitch mouth’s fault.

Jesse’s so close to hit him, but Wrecker’s on him in an instant, picking him up from the ground. Now, if it was just a simple discussion, Fives would’ve let it go - he would’ve bitched about it internally but he would’ve let it go. This, this is different; if that’s a fight what they want, they will have a fight.

He bolts up, followed by Kix, whose intentions seem more towards stopping the fight than to take part in it, but Fives is having none of this. Insults and mocking are one thing, touching a brother is another.

“Let him down!” he yells stepping towards Wrecker. He barely registers Kix beings pushed by Crosshair, and if he dares to try the same thing on him he swears, he’ll snap him like the twig he is.

He may not have their “desirable mutations” but he can still kick their asses if he wants to, and look what a coincidence, he really does right now.

It takes Hunter to defuse the situation before it ends up in a scuffle. Damn, they’re acting like a bunch of shinies.

There’s still the mission to focus on, and Fives tries to keep his composure, ignoring the Bad Batch altogether.

As they prepare to leave he goes to check in on Kix, kneeled beside Cody. He’s applying some bacta on his wound.

“I don’t have much, but it’s better than nothing,” the medic mutters, clearly not happy about the situation. If they lose the kriffing Marshall Commander, it’ll be bad. At least help is on its way, so hopefully they won’t have to wait for too long; all Kix has to do is to make sure that he stays alive until they arrive.

“You sure you can hold up?” Fives asks.

“You’re the ones going into danger, not me.”

“Careful Kix, I might start thinking you’re jealous that we’re getting some action, unlike you.”

“Kriff off!” Kix goes to give Fives a light punch on his knee, but as the smile on his lips suggest, it’s a light-hearted gesture. It’s nice being able to tease each other like this again; there was too much tension before.

They both chuckle, but then Kix gets serious again.

“And tell Jesse not to do anything too stupid,” he warns Fives, who rolls his eyes at those words, even though he’s still smiling.

“Tell him yourself,” he replies, not because he won’t tell, but just because he wants to be a little shit.

“I already did, but knowing him he needs a reminder.”

“I’ll tell him you said that.”

“As if he doesn’t know already what I think of him,” Kix huffs, only to look at Fives as he adds, “Please, be careful.”

“We will, Kix, I promise. We didn’t come this close to ending the war just to die.”

Fives takes a moment to himself to focus, but judging by the heavy steps coming towards him, he will be joined by Jesse soon. He was never good at stealth and ARC training sure didn’t help with that.

“You ready?” his brother asks once he’s in hearing range. Fives turns towards him.

“Yeah I am.” At first it seems the end of the conversation, then Fives remembers what Kix asked him to do, “Kix wants to remind you not to do anything too stupid. Weird that he said ‘too stupid’ and not just ‘stupid’, almost like he knew already that you’re going to do something dumb anyway.”

“Ah ah,” Jesse says, mocking a laugh, face completely unimpressed, “When did you become such a killjoy? Last time I checked you were all for crazy battle tactics.”

“It’s not that I don’t like them anymore, but…”

But he almost died. Sure, he’s risked his life countless times in this war, but this last time really did a number of him, and that’s only scratching the surface of what’s going on in Fives’ head. Now that he’s so close to see finally the results of not only his efforts, but the vode’s as well, he doesn’t want to kick the bucket; he doesn’t want to be just another casualty to add to the list.

There’s also Echo’s deal. If he’s truly alive and out there, Fives wants to find him. Someone will have to take care of him, and that someone is going to be him; he owes him that after leaving him for dead at the Citadel. He promised himself that he won’t die before reaching him, even at the cost of foregoing his usual battle tactics.

He should say something, trying to explain himself, but as Jesse gently rests a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it, he understands that he doesn’t need to. In the end he had revealed to him and Kix too about his and Rex’s theory about Echo; needless to say that they’ve been enthusiastic at the prospect of having their brother back.

“I know, vod. I was just teasing you,” Jesse says, “And I solemnly swear that I won’t commit any reckless act… At least unless the situation really calls for it.”

“I’ll hold you to it,” Fives smirks, “And now let’s show these shebs how Torrent does things.”

“Yessir!”

It went better than expected. By diving their forces they’ve managed to distract the guards enough to infiltrate the command center. Hell, they even managed to get a getaway shuttle - Fives supposes that even Crosshair serves a purpose after all.

Still, Rex has been weirdly closed off since their departure, something that doesn’t sit well with Fives, who approaches him, wanting to know how his captain is fairing.

“Something wrong?”

“I heard his voice,” Rex says, turning to him, “Fives, I heard him back there. I asked who we were speaking to and I heard him.”

So this means…

“Echo’s alive. It’s all true.”

It takes Fives a moment to process Rex’s words, and when he does he feels dizzy. So it’s all true; what was once just a mere hope has become the truth.

Echo’s alive and Rex managed to contact him. This means that he’s in Separatists’ hands. He can’t help but to wonder what they have done to him, if he’s fine, if he’s safe, even though he knows that this kind of pointless worry will only make things worse for him.

Still, now that he knows he’s truly alive, he’ll do everything he can to rescue him. He owes him that much.

“I suppose this means the mission is far from over, captain.”

Rex nods. “It only just begun.”

#arc trooper fives #captain rex #anakin skywalker #commander cody #arc trooper jesse #clone trooper kix #the bad batch #sw #tcw #star wars #the clone wars #my fics #mine #found you #clone husband

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