Star Wars One-Shots

Vode An

Author's Note: This is the first fic I wrote with the Bad Batch, and it was kinda scary, ngl. Lol. But I had sooo much fun, at the same time. I just desperately needed a fix-it for the end of the first season, because the Bad Batch deserves to be together. *cries*

This is a gift fic for ameliasstories on ao3 for the SW Sibling Appreciation Gift Exchange! :D (Yes, I wrote two gifts. Lol.)

PS. There is a little Mando'a in here, but I don't want to reread through it to give translations at the end. If you really don't know the words, Google them. :) xD

~ Amina Gila

"We were brothers once. We can be again." Torn apart by the Empire, Clone Force 99 has been divided for far too long. Trust, once lost, is not easily regained, but maybe, all that it needs is a chance, taking a risky gamble based merely on hope. Crosshair has been missed. Sorely. And now, perhaps Hunter can get through to him and convince him to come back.

Crosshair is something of a topic that they all carefully avoid, traipsing around it, avoiding it, no matter how awkward the silences or aborted sentences. It's a cloud hanging over their heads, and not a day goes by where his absence isn't acutely noticed – and dare he say missed.

Every time they go on a mission, Hunter's first instinct is to say, "Crosshair, up top," because that's normal for them. Crosshair is their sniper, their eyes in the sky, and he's always up top, watching over them from above. But Crosshair isn't here anymore, and his absence is like an ache, something deep and raw that neither heals nor fades. Sure, they've gotten used to his absence, but they've never truly accepted it.

(How many times has he started saying, "Crosshair can," only to cut himself off and replace it with Wrecker or Echo without missing a beat or hesitating?)

And maybe that lack of acceptance, in part, is because of the silent, secret hope that they can fix things someday. It's foolish, Hunter knows, but Crosshair is his brother. They grew up together, the four of them, and he cannot imagine a world where he'll never have Crosshair at his back again, no matter how likely it might seem to him.

But they don't talk about him, about his absence, because it hurts too much. Everything that happened – it's all wrong. None of it should have happened, and Hunter would give anything, anything at all, if it meant he could fix it.

Obviously, it won't be easy. So much has happened. So much has gone wrong. Crosshair has been hunting them down for weeks, now, and whatever trust Hunter had in his brother has been shattered. It's gone, drifting to the wind, no matter how much he wishes otherwise. And... he imagines that is true in the reverse, because they left Crosshair behind. He was fighting them, trying to hurt – or even kill – them, and they had no choice.

But they still left him.

And they do not leave their own behind.

That's why Hunter isn't too surprised when the rest of his squad – including Omega, of course – shows up on Kamino to rescue him. They came, as he knew they would, because they do not leave their own behind.

(Apparently, Crosshair is somehow an exception.)

He doesn't know what he expected from Crosshair. An execution probably, given his devotedness to hunting them down. But whatever it was he'd anticipated, it's not... this.

"You weren't loyal to me. I was one of you. You may have forgotten, but I haven't. And it's why I'm going to give you what you never gave me: a chance."

"We were brothers once. We can be again."

Crosshair's words cut into him, deeper and sharper than a vibroblade ever could, and Hunter does his best not to react, not to show how desperately he wants it. Nothing has ever been the same with Crosshair gone, and it should be impossible for him to miss the sarcasm, the biting comments, the scathing remarks as much as he does.