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littlemissmanga · 3 months

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Song of the Caged Bird (1/3)

Summary: Crosshair has failed. Still imprisoned on Tantis, he sees Omega and knows that his brothers didn't heed his warning. Unable to face his failure, he starts losing what little hope remained as he and his sister are offered as tribute to Hemlock's ambition. But every night, a voice echoing off the mountains soothes his battered and broken soul. But can Crosshair recover himself before that voice is silenced, forever?

Pairing: Crosshair x f!OC

Rating: PG-13 (there will be violence and a lot of dark thoughts and eventually a very vengeful Crosshair)

Tone: Hurt/comfort overall with a happy ending, but this first chapter will be 90% hurt with only 10% comfort.

Warnings: Some depressive/suicidal thoughts, imprisonment, threats of torture, characters dealing with grief and guilt spoiler if you haven't seen season 2 - Tech is dead in this fic, despite my beliefs to the contrary

Chapter w/c: 2,000

It was the constant tinkering near his head that dragged him back to consciousness.

Tap, tap, tap.

Nails against the light metal underneath him, pricking at his ears and sending sharp vibrations along the slab.

Damn Imps were even worse than the Kaminoans. At least the long necks would let him sleep after an experiment.

Arms and legs extended out from his body, cuffed and locked at the wrists and ankles for maximum exposure, Crosshair could feel the cold from the table seeping through his thin prison uniform. He didn’t remember passing out this time, but he already wished he could again.

The exhaustion was starting to wear on him. Though, if he were really being honest, the physical ache he felt in his bones was nothing he couldn’t handle.

It was the rest that was harder to ignore.

Crosshair was tired to the core of his being. Giving up was something wholly unfamiliar to him. The thought used to earn a sneer and a snide comment. But he was slowly coming to understand the allure. How easy it would be to just not wake up.

“Crosshair?”

What was he even waking up for? If he succeeded, his brothers would be far away with the kid. If he didn’t … well, he didn’t want to find that out, anyway.

“Crosshair!?”

The voice was louder that time, more insistent, and the sniper was aware enough to catch a quiver in his name. Emerie Karr had never so much as flinched in his presence. The discrepancy scratched at his brain, irritating until he opened his eyes.

And his heart sank.

Neatly combed blonde hair and large, sad brown eyes filled his vision.

“Crosshair! You’re awake! I was so worried; it was taking so long.” The kid threw herself on top of him, and if he had any air in his lungs, it would have been pushed out by the weight of her solid form pressing down on his.

The moment she pulled back, his eyes narrowed at her, ignoring the tear stains marking her cheeks and the spark of hope now hiding in the corner of her eyes.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Her face fell, and somewhere deep in his heart, Crosshair cared. But that didn’t matter. More important was the fact that she was here. His karking wanna-be hero brothers ignored the warning he risked his neck to send and the kid was still kidnapped.

It was only then that the cold shock of reality bit, clawing deep.

Hunter would never have let her go without a fight … or alone.

“The others?”

The kid sighed and fell back into a seat next to his table. “Safe, I think."

“You think?” he spit.

“Yeah. I think,” she snapped, though it lacked much bite. “I … I was able to distract the troopers long enough for Hunter and Wrecker to get free, and Echo was never captured. But I got grabbed. And I saw Maia in the transport with me.”

The name wasn’t familiar, but Crosshair knew who Omega was talking about. Her. That woman who had been with them on Kamino. The one they replaced him with in the squad mere rotations after they left him.

Of course she got caught, too. A kid and a civvie had no place in this.

“Figures. I risk my neck and you still get caught.” Crosshair strained against his bindings, his muscles aching from disuse. “I assume Tech at least got a tracker on your transport?”

It took a beat longer that it should have for Crosshair to realize the optimistic response he expected from the kid never came.

Omega’s silence said more than her incessant chattering ever did. Never in his life had Crosshair wanted her irritating, chipper voice to grate his ears as he did right then, and every moment he waited for it pulled at his heart until it felt stretched like the silence, far too thin to survive yet it was the heaviest weight he ever carried.

“Tech … he …”

Shut up, shut up, shut up.

“Shut up.”

How many times had he told his brother that? Told him to stop annoying him with his endless rants and useless information briefs?

But Crosshair didn’t dwell on the fact that he’d never tell Tech to shut up again. That the last thing he did say to him was cruel and spiteful. No, he didn’t focus at all on how he could feel the loss as acutely as he did the armor-penetrating cold on Barton IV.

Instead, he retreated to what he knew: turning pain to anger. He let it sit just as heavy as Omega’s silence, his accusations unsaid but understood. If they just karking listened to him, for once, Tech would still be alive.

It wasn’t long before Emerie Karr’s voice actually rang out, calling for Omega. And though he could feel the kid’s stare as she paused before leaving, he kept his face turned away.

He wanted to be left alone with his failure. And finally, he was getting his wish.

It was hours later when the Imps finally returned him to his cell. Just one of countless holding clones prisoner for experimentation and decommissioning.

The densely populated prison was surprisingly quiet, something for which Crosshair was thankful. The somber silence was as far from his experiences with his squad as possible. At least the regs could give him this.

Despite his muscles aching for use, Crosshair could only curl up on the pathetic excuse for a bed. He wanted the weight he felt to crush him, to actually wreck him the way it felt it could. Maybe then he’d be free.

A small part of his brain surged in resistance. Omega was here. He should keep her safe.

But he tried that before. And look where it got him. Where it got all of them.

Where it got Tech.

So instead, he let himself drown in the silence.

That is, until a small, frail sound made its way from somewhere above. A higher level of the compound, maybe. The echo made it difficult to pinpoint, but Crosshair didn’t care to know anyway.

It was a tune, hushed and broken. Its stuttering stops and starts were irritating, distracting him from his guilt and solitude until finally, the source seemed to gain enough strength to force the sound from their diaphragm.

"Somewhere … over the rainbow,

Way up high,

There's a land that I heard of

Once in a lullaby."

The staccato start had smoothed, and the voice rang through clean. It still wasn't loud, but it bounced off the fortress and surrounding mountain range, making it seem as if it were coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once.

Unable to block it out and unwilling to resist anything Tantis had left to throw at him, Crosshair gave in and lost himself in the sound.

"Somewhere over the rainbow

Skies are blue,

And the dreams that you dare to dream

Really do come true."

At first, he bristled at the words. But as the song kept repeating, the lyrics fell away. He felt the bittersweet tune envelope him and, after just a little longer, he allowed it to lull him to sleep.

And when the early morning light cut across his eyes and forced him from the blissful emptiness of his sleep the next morning, Crosshair intentionally ignored the fact that it was his first night without nightmares in weeks.

a/n: This is so not my usual style as I tend to be a fluff author all the way. BUT I had a scene pop into my head (it'll come in chapter 2) and this whole fic started unraveling. It'll be a 3-part series, not very long at all, and it'll be entirely from Crosshair's POV. I hope to get it done before Season 3 debuts so I get all my nerves out here and can still be hopeful for our boys canonically.

Taglist: (This is still broken cause I'm broke AF right now and can't upgrade my google storage so if your name isn't on here and you want to be alerted when Chapter 2 comes out, then drop a comment or DM and I'll add you to the list.

@dreamie411, @wings-and-beskar @starrylothcat @sev-on-kamino @wolffegirlsunite @secondaryrealm @idontgetanysleep @freesia-writes @clonemedickix @multi-fan-dom-madness @dystopicjumpsuit @sinfulsalutations @sunshinesdaydream @wizardofrozz @anxiouspineapple99 @dhawerdaverd @mythical-illustrator

People who liked my announcement post (Let me know if you want/don't want to be tagged going forward. I just wanted to let you know it was out since you showed interest): @ci-avmovies14 @rogue616, @marvel-starwarsfangirl

Like this fic? Check out the rest of my Masterlist!

#tbb crosshair x OC #crosshair x oc #tbb crosshair #it is an x oc but the focus here is on Crosshair #he's the protagonist #honestly the only reason it's oc instead of reader is because I needed to address her in the third person #you'll meet her next time #sorry for the whump fest this chapter became #but it's necessary to build the stakes #tbb crosshair fanfic #tbb omega

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