The Runaway {Hunter} (WATTYS 2022)

Chapter 9

The group gathered their head and made their way though the dusty territory towards the city. Two of the locals led them up the steep hill and stopped at the top. He pointed down to the city not far from where they were and spoke in his language. The General nodded and turned to the group behind him.

"Hope nobody's scared of heights." He joked.

The Bad Batch all turned to their largest clone friend, who looked back at them. "Well," Wrecker started, "I'm not scared of nothing. I just..." he looked down, being up a few hundred feet scared him. "When I'm up real high, I got a problem with gravity."

"Speaking of problems." Tech interrupted, looking to his wrist where he was connected to the wave length to track Echo." I am no longer picking up Echo's signal."

"I..." Rex stuttered turning around, "I don't understand. You said it was coming from this city." The captain pointed to the city behind Anakin and Cora.

"I can only speculate." Tech admitted "But it's possible there's a latency issue with the frequency," He pulled out his temp pad and held it up, "caused by all the atmospheric disturbances."

"Or..." Hunter turned to the captain, "maybe they sent the signal to lure us into a trap. And maybe your friend's actually dead." He looked to his group, "Well," he folded his arms over his chest. "I can't be the only one thinking that."

"You are." Cora snapped, "How could you say such a thing."

Hunter put his hands down and his shoulders slumped a little, possibly surprised that he had hurt Cora's feelings.

"Look," Rex got closer, pointing a finger at him, "every mission could be a trap. This one is no different. I'm telling you, that signal is being sent by Echo himself! He's alive!" Rex got up in Hunter's face.

"I think you're letting your personal feeling get in the way, you both are." Crosshair put his sniper over his shoulder, "All because you left him for dead at the Citadel." He shrugged.

"I had no choice. You hear me?" Rex angrily said.

"Oh I don't blame you." Crosshair turned away and looked over his shoulder to Rex, "I would've left him for dead too. Besides," He turned away and started to walk opposite of Rex. "He's just another reg."

Cora could feel the anger and hate dripping from Rex. She knew his face was red hot under the mask as Crosshair said such horrible things. As Crosshair turned around, Rex stepped forward and punched him, knocking him back. Rex took another swing and knocked the sniper to the ground.

"Rex!" Cora yelled stepping forward but Hunter stopped her. "Let me go, Sergeant!" Hunter held her waist, pulling her back as she hit his arms, trying to break from his grasp.

"Hey!" Wrecker yelled and picked Rex up by the neck. "Why don't you pick on someone not your size?"

Rex thrashed his arms on his neck as Wrecker held him high off the ground. Cora kicked Hunter in the stomach with her knee, causing him to let her go and groan, holding his stomach from her blow. She ran to Wrecker and grabbed his arm, pulling as hard as she could so he would let Rex down. Wrecker threw Cora off his arm, causing her to fall back on the wall of rocks. Rex stood up and looked Wrecker right in the face, their chests almost touching.

"You'll be a whole lot smaller when I'm through with you." Rex growled as he looked up to the tall clone.

"That's enough!" General Skywalker pulled Rex away from Wrecker, their eyes still locked. "Sergeant, take your men and scout the area for a tower entrance." He yelled, "I want to talk to my Captain and the Senator, alone." He looked over his shoulder to Rex who rubbed his arm.

Hunter nodded and turned to Cora, offering his hand to help her up off the ground. Cora smacked his hand away and stood up on her own. She moved past the Sergeant and got his shoulder. Cora didn't even turn her head to him. Hunter motioned his men to move on as he watched the Senator stand next to the General and Rex.

The three watched as clone force 99 moved off down the small mountain and back down. The General sighed and turned to his Captain.

"Rex," he breathed, "I hate to say it, but..." he placed his hand on Rex's shoulder. "You have to prepare yourself for the possibility that Echo is dead. You both do. It might all be a Separatist trick." Anakin turned to Cora.

"Sir," Rex sighed. "I've watched so many of my brothers fall during this war, and I try not to hang on to any one of them." Rex took off his helmet and looked to his General, "But that changed when I heard that Separatist transmission. It was no algorithm. That was Echo's voice. I know it."

The General turned to the Senator, who nodded softly. "I hope you're right." He said, "But if, for some reason, you're wrong..."

"Then I'll deal with it." Rex told him.

"The least we can do, is hope." Cora said. "There's always hope."

Rex looked to Cora, happy to know that she at least was on his side. She was always on his side. Cora saw how much finding Echo meant, so she would fight for him, and Echo.

"We should regroup." General Skywalker said. "They are quite the batch of clones." He sighed, as the three made their way down the path off the hill.

"That seems to be the topic of conversation these past few days." Cora huffed.

"They don't follow orders very well." Rex said.

"They are difficult, but the Sergeant seems to fancy you." The General turned to Cora who glanced at him.

"He does not." She huffed. "He is difficult and demanding."

"Hunter's a Sergeant, being difficult and demanding is what he does." Rex chuckled putting his helmet on.

Cora rolled her eyes. "I put wish I could talk with Senator Amidala," Cora smirked, looking to the General, "then maybe I could discuss how she fancies you." She smirked and placed her helmet on her head.

The General stopped as Cora kept walking, Rex standing next to him. The two looked at each other, shocked at her response. The General eyed Rex, who put his hands up in defence.

"I didn't say anything." Rex shook his head, his eyes wide.

The General rolled his eyes and walked off away from Rex, following Senator Tane off the hill and down towards the tower.