Over the River and Through the Woods (Adventures!AU Book 2)

Ch. 52 TS Part 3: Showdown

Y'all better buckle tf up, because this monster of a chapter came out to an ASTOUNDING 5240 words. It's intense, it's messy, and it's outright BRUTAL at times. One of the most intense fight scenes I've EVER written, fanfiction or original stories. But hey! Now y'all will know why I've been humming Duel of the Fates a lot while drafting lol.

Originally, I was going to skip a week after this chapter (mainly to recover because damn did these chapters take a lot out of me) but I'm going to go ahead and keep on pushing through until I finish Trust Restored Part 3. Soooo get ready for TR Part1 next week! If y'all think the angst is done, ahahahahahhaha y'all got two more painful chapters to go.

In the mean time, I'd love to hear which fight was your favorite! Crosshairs, Wreckers, or Hunters!
Poor Tech was just a punching bag, sorry little buddy.

CW: Near mutilation, intense action sequences, heavy violence, heavy angst, o66 level emotional turmoil.

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His eyes.

They'd... they'd gone for his eyes.

When Shadow first started muttering and twitching, Hunter knew something was wrong. Very wrong. They'd done the exact same thing the night before when they had the nightmare with Crosshair.

But this time was... different.

Last night, Shadow seemed pained. Hurt. Agonized, even.

This time they seemed scared, fear contorting their face as they thrashed from side to side, legs kicking as if they were running from something.

Or someone.

Then came their screaming.

"Wake up. Wake up!"

Hunter had rushed to Wrecker and Tech to try and calm them down. See if soothing words could reach them in their sleep. Eventually, they had fallen still.

He thought their nightmare had ended.

It had only gotten worse.

"No!"

"Stop!"

Then, when they finally did wake up, they...

Hunter tried to force air back into his lungs as he looked around at the aftermath; Crosshair and Wrecker winded, Tech bleeding, and he himself replaying that scene in his head.

The look of terror, the baring of teeth, the hoarse snarl, the flash of claws...

Had years of training, years of intense, rigorous training, not sharpened his reflexes to match a Nexu's... Shadow would have blinded him.

Hunter could still recall in vivid detail Wrecker's panic when the man realized he could only see out of one eye after that explosion two months prior. Nothing scared the large clone... except heights and the thought of losing his sight completely.

Hunter had felt Wrecker's panic then as well, only for a different reason.

Decommissioning was not something you talked about. But every clone knew about it. Knew about the soldiers who, after something happened that affected their ability to fight, were sent back to Kamino and never seen again.

"Don't send me back, Sarge! I can still fight! I can!"

Hunter shook his head hard, trying to rid Wrecker's terrified yelling from his ears. That problem was over.