Chapter Text
Crosshair has always been severe and unyielding.
We still would have taken you.
He cannot change that.
Severe and unyielding…
This isn't you!
It is his nature.
I wanted to believe it was the inhibitor chip...
Severe and unyielding.
I was wrong.
He jerked upright, chest heaving. Long fingers clutched at his hair, practically nonexistent since the injury. Staccato beats thrummed behind his eyes.
Deep breaths, he reminded himself. Slowly.
Behind his eyelids he could see Tech's detached gaze. Understanding you does not mean I agree with you.
He could almost accept that. He'd never asked to be agreed with. Not even understood really. Just… accepted. He just wanted to be accepted.
You were accepted. You were brothers.
He threw a punch at the blank wall of the Imperial berth. We could be again! Hunter is just too stubborn.
Troopers moved down the hall. Headed to the mess most likely. The similarities between this Imperial ship and Kamino struck him.
Has anything really changed? He shook his head. Of course they have.
He wants to hate the young clone, but he can't. She looks at him with trust in her eyes, even as Hunter and Tech look at him with uncertainty. Wrecker just looks at him with sadness. And Echo, well, he almost looks resigned.
Rampart asked for a report as soon as Crosshair had found his way to the briefing room. Never mind that he hadn't sent anyone to see if he'd survived. No, he'd had to find his way back on a scavenger's ship.
He keeps his responses concise, giving away nothing that could be used to track the others. Not that he'd forgiven them. No. He definitely has not forgiven them, he thinks. But he doesn't want anyone else following them, getting to them first, killing them. If it must be done, then it is his responsibility.
He sank to the hard mattress in his berth. His responsibility. He chuckled silently, wryly. He'd failed once.
But they're your brothers.
....
No!
He paced the narrow room. Are they still?
His mind whirs, pain ratcheting between his temples. He knows that he should find them, tell Rampart everything he knows. But something stops him.
You're still their brother.
He shakes the memory away. What does she know? She's a child, not a soldier. And good soldiers follow orders.
Blind allegiance makes you a pawn.
Hunter's voice crackled through his mind.
No! Not blind!
You're my brother too.
Why did she insist on forgiving him? Because she's a child? No, that can't be it. But nothing else makes sense.
Family…
The thought rose unbidden. She saw them as family. And she would always forgive family.
He wrinkled his nose in disdain. Foolish child. Family meant nothing. Then why are you trying to save them?
He threw himself backwards on the bed with a groan, heels of his hands pressed against his eyes.
Severe and unyielding indeed. He sighed.
A knock at the door had him pulling himself to his feet. "What?"
The TK trooper, Crosshair hadn't bothered learning his name, wrung his hands. "Uh, Commander, Sir, the Admiral requests our presence on the bridge, Sir."
Crosshair nodded, clipped, "I'm on my way, trooper. Carry on."
The trooper gave a hasty salute and was gone.
Crosshair looked down at his own nervously clenched fists. Tomorrow he could decide what to do about Hunter and the others. Today he has a job to do.
He'd made his decision.
He just didn't understand why it hurt so damn much.