Star Wars One-Shots

A Crossing Of Blood (Part 1)

Author's Note: This is for the Bad Batch bingo square of "Telepathy". :D

The second part will be posted next week. ^-^

Yes, this is another Vampire AU. Lol. I don't think I'll ever get tired of writing the boys like this. xP And as a note, the vampirism in this universe works a little differently than it does in most of the fics we've written. :D Not sure about all the details, and they don't really matter either, since the Batch never fully figures it out. Lol.

~ Amina Gila

The mission to mine ipsium went badly, leaving the Batch trapped in a collapsed mine. It's not until after they find another chamber by going over a waterfall that they realize they're being followed. By Crosshair. Who is clearly not at all in his right mind since he keeps trying to bite them, to feed on their blood. 

Crosshair does not remember the mission or the planet. He doesn't quite remember being captured, save in vague bits and pieces, fragments really. He doesn't even remember how he got back to Coruscant, injured and half dead, after escaping and killing his captors.

All he does remember is getting back, feeling the stirrings of a new instinct deep inside of him, one which purrs and whispers coven. His brothers are on the planet. He doesn't know how he knows, but somehow, he knows. The hunger has been unbearable, unstoppable; nothing has been enough to quell it, and when he feels them, his brothers, he knows, somehow, that finding them matters more than anything else.

***

Hunter screams the whole way over the waterfall. To be fair, so does Wrecker. He doesn't like heights anymore, not after Daro, not after nearly falling to his death, and when he's faced with heights, with falling, his heart ends up in his throat, dread and fear washing through him strongly enough to take his breath away. Maybe it's not just the heights that scare him. maybe it's also the association he has with them, because he'd been captured on Daro, taken by Crosshair, and then... everything fell apart, too far for him to put something back together again.

Even six months later, it still hurts.

It will always hurt.

With Crosshair gone, it will never stop hurting. It can't.

Tech places a vial of ipsium on the rock, carefully lining up to shoot it precisely so the resulting explosion will blow a hole through the rocks large enough for them to get through.

Hunter's ears pick up the sound of splash just as Tech fires, and as the smoke clears, he rises, turning towards the water, hand near his blaster as he cautiously looks for what could have caused the sound. A black-armored figure, far, far too familiar, drags himself out of the water, and they immediately reach for their weapons, warily watching Crosshair.

Is the Empire here? How did they find them? It doesn't even make sense. They've kept their heads down ever since the fiasco on Serenno, and they haven't even run into any Imperial troopers recently. Is this an accidental meeting then? What is Crosshair doing here?

"Crosshair?" Omega says, the first to find her voice, her hands clenched tightly on her bow, though she doesn't actually activate it or aim it at him.

Crosshair reaches up, pulling off his helmet, and Hunter immediately knows that something is wrong. There's a haziness to his eyes, as if he's not fully present, something feral and animalistic glinting in them as he scans them, a flicker of recognition and satisfaction crossing his face before he takes a few steps closer.

"How did you get here?" Hunter asks, ready to raise his blaster on a moment's notice, if necessary. Crosshair doesn't answer, something calculating in his gaze as he looks between them, eyes finally locking in on Wrecker.