Star Wars One-Shots

On Your Love I Stand (Part 1)

Author's Note: This was written for the Bad Batch bingo. :D

I just really needed to write Hunter and Crosshair hashing things out, especially because of how difficult it would be. And... this became a time travel. Just know that while Hunter and Crosshair are... ahem, discussing things, Tech and Wrecker (who probably also time traveled because I Say So) are hugging each other and crying in their barracks. Lol.

Normally, I don't like it when the Bad Batch members fight or argue, because it just hurts so much, but rest assured that this will have a happy ending. They just need to talk their way there first, and maybe I just very badly needed them to break first, too. ;)

Lemme know what you think! :)

PS. The second part will be posted in a week. ^-^

~ Amina Gila

Hunter has one question for Crosshair. Why? Why... everything? And when he, and Crosshair, awaken in the past, before everything came crashing down, Hunter can finally ask his brother the question he wants to know most: why? Did they try to go after Crosshair for nothing? Did Tech die for nothing? Why? Why did Crosshair do it?

Hunter wakes up when he hears the whimper-whine, and when his ears pick up the increased heartrate signaling distress. It's instinctive, after so many years, that he becomes alert at the sound of one of his brothers in distress He blinks his eyes open to see a sight that's familiar to him, and also, not one he'd expected. At all.

His bunk on Kamino. It looks exactly the way it used to, when they were still here, down to the smallest scratches on the wall from his vibroblade.

He pushes upright, confused and aching in equal measures, because it's been so long since he's seen this room. Kamino is gone. Why is he seeing it now? This... isn't a dream, he doesn't think, though he's afraid to believe it's anything but, because he can't actually be in the past, no matter how many times he's wished for a chance to do it all over again. If he did it again, he'd protect his squad. He wouldn't let Tech die. He wouldn't let the Empire get Omega. And Crosshair –

That name evokes so many memories and even more emotions. His feelings towards his youngest brother are complicated to say the least. Crosshair was their guardian, the one who always lashed out first, protective to the end. And Hunter doesn't know when their protection took the backseat to Crosshair's duty. When did Crosshair start caring for orders more than his brothers? How did Hunter never see it? He never thought it possible, not once, not until Order 66 and everything after that.

So when? And most of all: why? Why did Crosshair do... it? Why did he do everything he did to them? Why?!

(Why did he stop caring so fiercely? Why did he turn his loyalty from them to the thing they were created to fight and die for? Why did Crosshair turn on the Empire after leaving them for it? Why – why?)

Too many questions and no answers.

But the room smells the same, and when Hunter scans it, in the dim lighting, he sees Wrecker sprawled on his bunk, hugging Lula in one arm. Tech – Tech is on his own bunk, curled on his side, breathing evenly. And his gaze finally drifts to their last member. Crosshair. Crosshair who is twitching on his bunk, shifting as if in the throes of a nightmare, expression scrunching up with discomfort and pain.

Hunter swallows, throat suddenly dry.

Echo isn't here. Echo, the one who helped Hunter keep himself and Wrecker together after they lost Tech and Omega. Echo, their ori'vod, who was a steady supportive presence to them, who chose them despite everything. Echo, who despite his stubbornness and grumpiness and insistence on trying to follow a system still settled into their particular brand of chaos without much difficulty.