We Are Forever

Chapter 1 - Resurrection

Author's Note: This is for the square "reincarnation AU" on the Bad Batch Bingo. :D It'll be updated weekly! 

~ Amina Gila

Consciousness fades in far slower than Hunter thinks it ought to. Maybe. Something feels... weird. Off. Distant. Breathing is hard, and – something's nearby, he thinks.

He expects to feel the same burning agony in his chest that he did on Bracca, but he... doesn't? Which is weird. He was shot. He felt it, and that's the last thing Hunter remembers.

This planet doesn't feel like Ryloth, though – the magnetic field arcs entirely differently, only half stable, shifting and twisting like they've never been fully able to settle out. It makes his head throb dully. What – what happened? He was on Ryloth, and now...

Whenever he is, it's dark. This – this isn't a cell, is it? He was shot. He walked out the door and –

That was Crosshair. It was Crosshair – he's the last person Hunter saw, and he'd just known what was about to happen. It was too fast for him to react. It was all so fast, so what is this? Where is he? He thought... thought he was gone.

"Hunter," a voice says, not one that's familiar, but it feels like he knows him. It's deep and mechanicalized, and he blinks a few times, turning his head to the side towards the machine he feels nearby. It must be a cyborg, similar to Echo, though far more electrical.

The figure is in all black, and he's familiar, but Hunter can't remember anything. "Who are you?" he rasps and freezes. His voice sounds wrong. He feels wrong. Not not-him wrong, but just wrong. Hunter shoves himself upright.

He's too small. That's what's wrong.

He was this size at – five maybe? Or was it four? He's not sure. He's even dressed wrong – his armor and body glove are gone, and what is happening –

The helmet tilts a little while hardly moving, still fixed on him. "You don't remember?"

Tentatively, he shakes his head. Who is this person? What – how is he alive? He thought he was dead, or – is he captured by the Empire? That wouldn't explain the... age change. He could've sworn he died, remembers... being somewhere and nowhere at all. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but that's something from a far off, distant memory.

"You came to me," the cyborg replies, "You asked my help to bring you back."

Bring him – "I did die, didn't I?" He sounds way too young. Everything feels different. It's easy to forget how much his mind changed as he grew older. It feels different. Too – not thought through enough. Lacking the control that let him take care of his brothers in the first place.

He can't think about Crosshair right now. He doesn't know who this person is, and figuring out where he is right now is far more important.

"Yes. You asked me to take you home."

"Why did you help me?" He stands up, brushing himself off – the rock feels warm. The area is warm and sticky, and the air is thick. It's hard to breathe. Hunter's eyes fall on the lightsaber on the person's belt. "Are you a Jedi? I thought they're all..."

"No," he replies fiercely. Hunter still doesn't have his name. "A lightsaber does not make one a Jedi."

Uh. Okay. Sure. Hunter could swear he didn't used to be this tiny. He's about at the person's waist, which is to say, very small. He has no idea if he is just small, or if whatever-his-name-is is just big. "Why am I so small?"

"Evidently, when I brought you back, the doorway interpreted your mental age as your real one."

He was not nine mentally, thank you very much, whatever-his-name-is. "I think I would've been four or five at this size."