#i have two episodes of bad batch left but i KNOW what happens and i am UPSET. I'M COMING FOR YOU MR FELONY. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hugmekenobi · 5 months ago

Text

Heal

A Bad Batch Post S3 Oneshot

Gif by @barissoffee

Hunter x femaleJedi!reader

Summary: Shaking the effects of Tantiss is easier said than done

Warnings: Literally one use of (Y/N), swearing, hints of Tech/Phee, references to past pain and torture, angst, hurt/comfort, nightmares and trouble sleeping, descriptions of illness (headaches), reader is hard on herself, suggestive dialogue, light PDA (kissing, teasing touches), mentions of food, me making up what everyone is up to on Pabu, fluff and happy ending

Masterlist for S1, S2 and S3

Word Count: 7.2K

Rating: 18+

Author's note: Okay, not gonna lie, I struggled with this one. It was a last minute idea as I was rewatching and writing the final few episodes of season 3 but it worked and felt a lot better in my head and when it came to writing, my brain was not my friend lol. I hope it's still enjoyable! The next oneshot is the story I've had planned for months so that should be a smoother process haha

It had been a few weeks since you’d all taken up official residence in Pabu.

Shep’s offer of setting up homes for you all stayed true.

You and Hunter had been put in a hut perfectly designed for the two of you that was a short walk away from the water and there was even a spare room for Omega who alternated between sleeping in your home and the home Tech, Crosshair and Wrecker all shared.

The three other clones may have been grouped together but there was plenty of room, and not a lot of time was spent indoors anyway.

Wrecker had taken to fishing like, well, like a fish to water.

Crosshair did a bit of everything, helping out with tasks of whoever needed assistance but he mainly he kept up with practicing shooting with his left hand. He wanted the practice, and he genuinely enjoyed it. He didn’t miss being a soldier anymore but that didn’t mean he had to renege on his skills.

Tech spent much of his time with Phee or assisting Shep in rebuilding parts of Pabu that still needed it and upgrading equipment.

Omega often kept close company with Lyana and the other young reg clones or she went off with Tech to plan out a potential search for lost or salvageable pieces of the Marauder- the two of them had dreams of rebuilding new a ship with as many pieces of their old home as possible. It was yet to be undertaken but the vision was there.

The task of reuniting the children from Tantiss with their families had been successful but with that final mission complete, you and Hunter were also in the same boat as Crosshair and still yet to find your official niche on island. For now, you both were just relishing in the peace and each other’s company.

One thing you had managed to achieve was finding a way to finally get in touch with Lyra again, who- despite being filled in on everything that had happened since you parted ways on Christophsis- still managed to scold you for the lack of communication. But after hearing you all were alive and settled, she’d sent you all packages of more suitable island clothes with promises to visit soon.

Everything was coming together and so you were feeling one with the island life.

However, life here was not without its challenges.

The impact and aftermath of Tantiss remained a constant shadow that would still find ways to rear its ugly head. Something you and Hunter in particular found yourselves dealing with.

“I figured we could have the party in the next couple of weeks right here in the colonnade and, I don’t know, you could slip away or…” Shep trailed off as he saw the way Hunter’s brow furrowed in pain.

“Uh huh.” Hunter agreed distantly. He didn’t want to ignore Shep, especially when he was doing him the favour, but fuck had the sun always been this bright? The blinding pain behind his eyes and throbbing in his skull was getting harder to dismiss.

You were a casual observer and listener to the conversation between the young reg clones and the adult clones that had remained on the island- Deke, Stak and Mox had no shortage of questions for them. But you sensed a rising discomfort and then you caught the way Hunter kept pinching the bridge of his nose and squinting to get away from the glare of the warm sun. “Excuse me.” You politely removed yourself from the conversation and hurriedly walked over to where Shep and Hunter were conversing. “Shep, I’m sorry to interrupt but do you mind if I steal him away for a moment?”

“Not at all.” Shep bid the two of you farewell with a smile.

You lightly rested a hand on his upper arm. “Hunter? Another flare up?” You figured, keeping your worried voice quiet.

Hunter just about managed a nod and said through gritted teeth, “But I can wait it out. Shep-”

He would attempt to come up with an excuse every time and every time you wouldn’t even entertain it. “Come on.” You carefully wrapped an arm around him and guided him back home.

You opened the door and carried on through to the bedroom. You gently prompted him to sit on the bed as you knelt down and took his shoes off before you shut the bedroom window to cancel out the noise outside and closed the blinds to keep the sunlight out. You kept your voice low and monotone as you instructed him, “Lie down.”

Hunter did as you said and rested on his back.

The routine was second nature to you. He hadn’t had headaches like this for a while but since Tantiss and because of what he’d suffered there, they’d become more frequent. His senses hadn’t quite readjusted back to what they used to be.

You moved silently throughout the house as you went to the freezer and came back with the cold compress you stored specifically for these moments and placed it over his eyes. “I’ll just be in the living room if you need anything. Try to sleep.” You whispered caringly before you lightly squeezed his hand and made to leave. However, you had barely stepped away from the bed when Hunter’s hand caught your wrist.

“Stay.” He requested through a wince.

“I don’t want to overwhelm you.” You cautioned quietly. You had remained a couple times before, but it had never been a certainty that he wanted you to stay when he was going through this. You always waited for him to give the okay.

“You can’t.” He murmured. He needed you here to ground him in a way the usual methods could never do.

You removed your own shoes and supported his back as you sat him up and slotted yourself behind him.

Hunter rested his head against your chest.

You readjusted the compress slightly once you were both in a comfortable position. “This okay?” You asked as you softly massaged each of his temples.

Hunter let out a tranquil sigh and he could already feel the discomfort receding. You always knew just what it was he needed from you in these moments. “Perfect.”

Hunter wasn’t the only one still feeling the lingering toil of Tantiss. Your screams of terror and the way you thrashed next to him woke him up. He called your name and shook your arm to wake you up. “Hey, hey. Easy, easy. It’s alright.” He assured you as he saw your eyes widen in fear.

You shot awake and hastily sat up, your breathing hard and uneven.

“You’re okay. I’m here.” Hunter whispered soothingly as he sat up alongside you.

You closed your eyes and let his voice be the only thing you focused on.

“You’re alright. It was a bad dream.”

Right yes, a bad dream.

“Hold on.” Hunter pressed his lips to your clothed shoulder before he got out of bed and ran a cloth under some cold water.

You worked on getting your breathing back under control. You ran a hand over your face and felt the beads of sweat dripping down your temples and down your neck and back. Your sleep top was sticking to you uncomfortably. But you forced yourself to concentrate on anything that didn’t remind you of the nightmare you’d just escaped. You took in your secure and familiar surroundings of your bedroom to calm yourself down. You weren’t back there. You were on Pabu with Hunter. You were safe here.

Hunter slid back in bed beside you. “Arms up.” He prompted delicately. When you did that, he carefully removed your sweat soaked top and tossed it to the side of the bed– he’d deal with it in the morning- and placed the cool cloth to the back of your neck and spine before he tenderly dabbed at your temples. He then put a replacement top back over your head and continued to press the flannel around your forehead and neck.

“I’m sorry.” You rasped as you hid your face in your palms in embarrassment. You hated this. He would already have tough days and you couldn’t even offer him any relief in the evenings. The two of you had gotten into a rather unfortunate ritual where you would comfort him during the day and then the roles would switch as soon as night fell.

“You’ve nothing to be sorry for.” Hunter reassured you lovingly. He placed the cloth on the bedside table and rubbed his hand up and down your back to ease away the lingering tension and to help settle you back down. “Same one?” He guessed.

You nodded but kept your face hidden from him. “I’m just standing there. I’m watching him hurt you over and over again and I’m not doing anything to stop it.” You said, your voice cracking with each word. “Then he goes to the rest of you- to Omega. I’m completely frozen and all I can do is watch you all writhe in pain. I keep fighting to move but nothing happens. I’m just so useless and I stand by and let it happen. You’re crying out for help, and I just stand there.” You whispered with plenty of self-loathing behind your words.

Hunter shushed you consolingly. “But that’s not what happened. It’s just the nightmare talking.”

“Is it? Because it feels an awful lot like that’s what I did.” You said with self-directed disgust.

““You didn’t do nothing. You didn’t give up. You did what you thought you needed to do to get us out of there alive.” Hunter reminded you.

“Imprisoned.” You corrected.

“Alive.” Hunter countered.

You knew there was no sense in arguing with him over it. “I should be over this by now. I coped after Christophsis. I don’t know why this is sticking with me so much.” You said critically instead.

Hunter was all too familiar with this line of argument. As soon as you admitted to the nightmare and the fear it brought, you started looking for ways to berate yourself for feeling the way you were. “You couldn’t process Christophsis on your own time. You were in a position where you were forced to carry on. And I don’t think going through and being impacted by torture has a time requirement.”

You finally half-turned to face him. “Do you really believe that?”

The doubt in your voice made his throat constrict and chest tighten. “I know it.”

“But dealing with this is annoying.” You mumbled self-consciously and you averted your gaze once more.

“Do you get annoyed when you’ve needed to help me?”

You lifted your eyes back to him. “No, of course not.”

“Exactly. You help me through those episodes. Why do you think I’d treat you any differently?” He rubbed his thumb along your cheekbone. “You still need to give yourself the same treatment you give other people.” He said caringly.

You leaned your head against Hunter’s shoulder and just gave a series of reluctant but agreeable noises to signal your acceptance of his statement.

“You’re talking to me though. That counts for something.” Hunter praised, angling his head so he could kiss your forehead.

“Yeah, I’m a work in progress.” You managed to say with some light-heartedness before your voice went solemn again. “Just don’t give up on me… please.”

“Never.” Hunter promised with steadfast seriousness.

Your eyes flickered shut and you snuggled closer to him as he ran his hand up and down your arm in soft, delicate patterns.

“Want to sleeping try again?” He suggested after he felt your breathing and pulse settle back down.

You gulped but agreed to give sleep another go. “Okay.” You laid back down readjusted the covers you had kicked off in your sleep-panicked state. You breathed deeply as you closed your eyes and willed yourself to at least get a couple uninterrupted hours. But the darker part of your nightmare, the part you couldn’t vocalise, lingered with you and you didn’t know how to get past it.

Hunter wrapped his arm around your side and pulled your back tight to his chest, but despite all you opened up about, he knew you were holding something back. It was the same every night and he knew sleep would continue to elude you.

This new day was nearly over. Dusk had come and gone but the concept of night and sleep filled you with a deep anxiety. You needed to clear your head before you even thought about winding down for the night. “I’m going for a walk; I’ll be back soon.” You said, giving Hunter a chaste kiss to his lips before you exited your home.

Hunter gave you a slight smile as you parted from him, and he could only watch you leave. He had never felt so helpless.

He knew he couldn’t quite help you in the way you needed but there might be someone else who could.

“Hey there, Hunter.” Phee greeted cheerily as she opened the door to greet the clone.

“I’m not interrupting anything am I?” Hunter asked apologetically.

Phee rolled her eyes, “Pfftt no way. He’s been at this for hours, if you can get his attention onto something else, be my guest.” She led him through to the living room.

Tech grunted his greeting as he sought out the tool that he needed for the task he was completing for Shep. The island had a healer- Dalia, but she mainly operated out of her home because, until recently, that suited just fine. But when the attack on Pabu occurred, Shep and Dalia had found themselves ill-prepared for accommodating the seriousness of the injuries that followed so Tech was assisting in expanding and updating her equipment and resources. AZ was already a big help with that, but more was needing done. It was a longer but important project that Tech was taking very seriously.

“Sorry about the mess.” Phee said with an annoyed yet affectionate stare in Tech’s direction, but she was not surprised when the clone did not appear to even register that she’d spoken. She had stopped trying to get Tech to tidy as he went about altering this latest piece of machinery since he’d insistently claimed there was an order to the chaos around him. The entire area in which he was working was covered with random tools and intricate pieces of machinery. Phee struggled to see how this all equalled a system since all she saw was an array random pieces of metal taking up her living room floor. It didn’t truly bother her though; it was just another quirk she was fond off. Her appreciation for his intelligence and passion outweighed a little untidiness.

“Don’t worry, it’s something I’m very used to.” Hunter said lightly as he carefully stepped over some discarded screws.

“Sit down.” Phee encouraged, gesturing to a spare chair as she took a seat on the couch across from where Tech was working in the middle of the floor. But when Hunter made no move to do so, Phee properly looked at him and she noticed the distant and slightly nervous expression Hunter donned. “Everything alright?”

“I need your help, Tech.” Hunter said in answer.

Tech spoke for the first time since Hunter arrived as he found the spanner he needed, “I’m not yet finished with this. Once I’m done-”

“I don’t need you to fix anything, Tech. It’s about (Y/N). She’s struggling right now and-”

“Well, we know that she has a habit of taking things on by herself. A habit both of you have shared for quite a while.” Tech said plainly, not taking his eyes off the medical equipment he was fixing up. “I wouldn’t take her refusal or dismissals personally.”

Hunter bit back his frustrated huff. He knew attempting to get his brother’s focus when he was so absorbed by a project was always going to be challenging. He went to speak again but Phee beat him to it.

Enough was enough. Phee firmly nudged Tech’s good thigh with her boot, “Would you stop playing around with that and actually pay attention to what he has to say?”

Tech snapped out of his intense concentration. “Right, yes. Sorry, Hunter.” He started officially packing up. Once he was done, he gave his brother his full attention and it was then that he saw the genuine worry on Hunter’s face which told him it was more important than any mechanical repair. “What’s going on with her?”

“She keeps having nightmares from her capture on Tantiss. I can’t remember the last time she slept through the night.” Hunter took a ragged breath. “And it’s not like she’s keeping them to herself and that’s why they’re so bad. She’s doing everything we’ve worked on. She talks to me; she lets me in and help her, but I know there’s something else she’s keeping hidden. And it’s because she knows I can’t offer her the right words, or she wants to protect me from whatever it is she’s not telling me. I’m stuck and she’s not getting any better and I can’t offer her anything more than what I’m currently doing.”

“So, how exactly can I help?” Tech asked, rather puzzled as to why his brother had come to him with this dilemma. He wasn’t exactly known for providing helpful assistance for this type of issue. It wasn’t that he never wanted to, it just always didn’t come easily to him and usually you and Hunter would always be able to work through it yourselves.

Hunter began tentatively, “Y-your experiences were- were similar. I’d thought about Crosshair but what he went through was a bit different and from what you’ve told us, it sounds closer to what she’s been through. I hate to ask it of you but-”

“Where is she?” Tech asked, getting to his feet.

“If you’re not comfortable doing this I understand. It’s a lot to talk about and-”

“Hunter, just tell me where she is.” Tech interrupted with a firm reassurance to show that he truly didn’t mind.

“Down by the shore.” Hunter told him through a grateful sigh.

Tech nodded and got ready to leave for the beach.

You breathed in the fresh and clean sea air, a gentle breeze wafted through your hair. The moonlight cast the water and sand in a luminous white glow. It offered you a peace you were yet to find in your own mind. The faint but demanding whines of the hound you’d acquired on your walk down had you smiling to yourself as you focused on the sounds of the waves lapping on the shore.

Tech saw you seated on the sand, Batcher waiting for you to throw a stick for her. “Did you know that gravity and the gravitational pull of the moon creates a phenomenon called tidal force, which is what causes the ocean tides to change?”

“I mean… I knew it was something like that.” You straightened your shoulders and managed a tight smile in his direction. “Hey, Tech.” You hoped you didn’t sound as exhausted as you felt.

Tech picked up on the heaviness in your voice despite your attempts to conceal it. “Also, did you know that water absorbs the red light of the colour spectrum, leaving the blue for us to see.” He added as he threw the stick for the hound.

You hummed out your acceptance of the fact as a reply whilst Batcher returned the stick but- after greeting Tech- decided she’d had enough and curled up beside you. “You didn’t come here to share ocean facts, Tech.” You said after a moment. “What’s going on?”

“You’re right. I have another purpose in joining you.” Tech admitted as he sat down on your other side.

“Which is?” You asked leadingly.

“Hunter asked me to. He’s worried about you.” He gave you a chance to speak but you offered nothing, so he carried on, “From what I hear, you’re having difficulty sleeping due to nightmares. They are based around your confinement on Tantiss?”

You cleared your throat to buy yourself some time before you answered, “Yeah.” You brought your knees to your chest.

“Can you tell me more? Whatever you’re comfortable sharing is fine.”

You breathed deeply and peered up at the starry night sky. “Well, you know about Christophsis.”

Tech nodded. That was something he’d been told about on the shuttle back.

“Tantiss… Tantiss was different. I took beatings but they were a treat compared to that fucking droid. Hemlock did a much better job of getting the most out of that damn serum. It got harder and harder to fight it. He knew exactly what buttons to push.”

“I’m afraid I had a helping hand in that.” Tech said sheepishly.

You placed your hand on his shoulder. “I don’t blame you, Tech. Not at all.” You reassured him earnestly.

“Regardless, his methods would’ve been that effective because I told him what would work.”

You patted his shoulder to indicate that you really didn’t hold any of that period against him before you removed it and placed it back across your bent legs. You surprisingly found that you kept wanting to talk so you carried on, “I’d never be able to ignore him, he’d always be able to get in my head so, instead, I’d would look for things to take me out of it.”

“A reasonable response.” Tech agreed. The times when he’d resisted, he’d acted similarly.

You felt irritation rise in you. You’d been weak, how could he not see that? “He told me you were alive, and I used it as a way to keep pushing back against him. Omega didn’t doubt it and she only heard him say it once.”

Hunter had warned him about this before he’d left. He expected you to say things designed to make him reprimand you instead of sympathising with you. The part of ‘no emotion’ element of the Jedi Code was deeply engrained in you. Despite your affinity for handling attachment and genuine love for them, when it came to your own emotions, you had gotten a bit too good at supressing or dismissing them. “Years fighting in a war has a way of creating a certain cynicism- or realism- depending on your point of view. It helps with survival and enduring each battle. I may have gotten out of it but even I have to admit that the odds were slim. I called out the plan. I knew what I was doing, I didn’t expect to live, and I didn’t expect you all to assume that I had.” Tech easily explained away the argument. “I’m grateful for Omega’s optimism and hope- it is a wonderful quality of hers and it got me out of there and brought me back to you all-, but I never expected you to believe I lived.”

You couldn’t accept the fact that the people around you were okay with how you’d acted. Every night was a painful reminder of how you’d failed them. “What I don’t understand is why Tantiss is still affecting me in this way. I got over Christophsis just fine.”

“No, you didn’t process Christophsis. You were thrown into mission after mission and were left with no choice but to keep going. It is highly plausible that Hemlock’s own similar torture was harder to get through because it was a reminder of a traumatic time that you’d already experienced but not healed from. Plus, I don’t believe feeling the effects of torture has a time requirement.”

You sighed heavily, “You’re the second person to tell me all that.”

“Does that not tell you something?” Tech prodded but he did it gently.

“I guess.” You said through a weary sigh as you ran your hands through the sand to distract yourself. “I handed myself over to Hemlock though. I gave up.”

“The guilt you’re experiencing over agreeing to Hemlock’s terms is natural. You-”

“It wasn’t guilt. Not wholly.” You said, your voice so quiet it barely registered over the rhythmic lull of the waves.

Tech glanced at you in surprise, but you were keeping your head down, stroking Batcher’s snout- the dog seemed to sense your distress and had nuzzled closer to you. He allowed the silence to grow as he patiently awaited further explanation from you.

You swallowed thickly as you went to speak again. “I was relieved.” You admitted, it was the first time you’d ever said the words out loud, and you instantly wished you could take them back. You wrapped your arms around yourself as you awaited the disappointed and shameful remarks from Tech.

“What were you relieved about?” Tech asked calmly.

That hadn’t been the response you were expecting. “Um-” You searched for the words to answer him. “When I was-” You broke off and started again and you found yourself being more honest than you’d anticipated. “When I was in that training room watching Hunter be tortured and I heard Hemlock say that he was going to do the same conditioning to Crosshair again and to Wrecker too… I gave him what he wanted. Throughout my time there, he wanted me to join him and that’s what I was prepared to do. But as I said it, there was a sense of relief. Finally, I could stop fighting him. The torture he put me through would end. And in the dream- nightmare- I keep having, as much as I hate what’s happening, part of why I can’t move to help any of you is because I’m just relived it isn’t me.” You visibly tensed as you finished speaking. Saying that last part out loud caused you physical pain and your stomach churned nervously as you waited for judgement. There had been a reason you couldn’t share this with Hunter. It sounded so selfish, so pathetic.

“I understand that.”

You angled your head to face him. It was your turn to wait for him to talk.

Tech took a grounding breath before he elaborated, “In my time imprisoned there, Hemlock wanted to know all he could about you all. He knew there would be a time where he’d have to face you all again. I didn’t quite experience the same beatings you took; it was always psychological. But whenever I showed willing to give him information, all I felt in that moment was a profound relief that the torment and pain would end. Granted, that swiftly became guilt as soon as he left but I couldn’t deny the respite those few minutes of me telling him about you all gave me. Now, did you only feel relief at it being over? Or was it relief that you could join him and do his bidding?”

You thought back to that time and realised what he was getting at. “No, it was because I knew if I gave him what he wanted, then at least they wouldn’t have to go through any more agony. At the time, imprisonment felt like the better option than becoming one of his operatives and experiencing that level of hurt.”

“Precisely. Your sleep is being haunted by the worst outcome. It’s praying on the flash of relief you felt and twisting it into something more than what it was. If you accept what happened and stop fighting it, it loses its power. You didn’t do anything wrong, you acted how you needed to. The only person that has the power to blame you is yourself. No one here does, sometimes it just helps to hear it out loud once in a while and it’s true. You resisted him for as long as you physically could. Those circumstances would’ve cracked anyone.”

You looked at him thoughtfully. “Is that how you did it?” You asked quietly.

“Well, I didn’t. Not always.” Tech reminded you, assuming you were referring to how he resisted Hemlock’s torment.

“No.” You released another deep sigh. “You seem to have settled here. You’re coping with it, and you were there for a long time.”

“I was in hell on Tantiss but not so much anymore. Being reunited with you all has really helped. Though I think if I had to watch any of them get hurt the way you had to, it would be different.” As he spoke, Tech realised why Hunter had come to him for this. He was sharing this part of him with you because he knew you were the only one that would truly get it. There was no worry of judgement, no worries of saying something too jarring. You would understand him just as he understood you. “I’ve accepted what happened to me and how I reacted to it but you’re the only one that knows those particular details of my experience. Phee and my brothers do not. Family helps with some of the burden but until you’ve had the unfortunate time of living it, their support can only do so much. We need each other it would seem.” Tech said with a kind look in your direction.

You widened your eyes at his openness. You were incredibly touched by that, and you didn’t take the lightly. “Thank you, Tech.”

“You asked a question, I merely answered.”

You shot him a look, “That’s not the only thing I’m thanking you for.” After speaking to him and fully unburdening yourself to someone who could only understand where you were coming from without the worry of saying the wrong thing or being too much, you felt like a weight had been lifted off your chest. You weren’t plagued by all the horrible and conflicting feelings that had followed you since Tantiss. You could breathe. You were free. You gently squeezed his hand as you said, “Thank you for what you’ve done tonight. For all of it.”

Tech shrugged off the thanks but smiled at you all the same. “We’re family, it’s what we do.”

You walked through the door to your home and took your shoes off.

Hunter walked out of the bedroom as he heard you come through the door. “Hey, how was your walk?��

You didn’t answer immediately. Instead, you just drank him in. You took in the way he leaned against the doorway, the book he was reading dangling from his hand. The way the soft linens of his sleep clothes framed his body. The way he’d still kept and worn the necklace you’d given him all that time ago. And the way he was looking at you with such deep care and affection, it made your heart clench and emotions clog up in your throat- you didn’t trust yourself to speak.

Hunter took your silence for upset. “I had to tell him. I thought-” But he didn’t get to finish his sentence as you strode towards him and embraced him.

You hugged him tightly. “Thank you.” You whispered.

Dropping his book and wrapping his arms around you instantly, Hunter rested his cheek on top of your head. He didn’t need or expect you to share the details of the conversation with Tech, he’d realised that you needed a different kind of comfort and that was okay. All that mattered to him was that it helped you.

You let the warmth of his soothing hold flow through your body, and you kept your voice hushed as you said, “I want you to know that it’s not that I didn’t want to tell you it all.”

“I know.” Hunter replied softly as he caringly caressed your back. He would not break away until you wanted to.

You pressed your face into the crook of his shoulder. Even though he had sent Tech your way, you didn’t want him to feel like he’d let you down or anything along that vein. “You did everything right. I needed you there… I still need you there. I can’t get through it without you but…” The words to describe just what it was Tech gifted you got lost and you frantically searched for them so he would know why you hadn’t just come to him with it.

The last thing Hunter needed or wanted was you feeling like you had to reassure him on the issue. “Sweetheart, all I wanted was for this to get easier for you. I know that there are emotions and parts of that experience on Tantiss that I will never fully understand- as much as that kills me, I wish none of it had happened to you or Tech in the first place but that doesn’t change the fact that it did. You needed more than a shoulder to lean on, and if Tech gave you that, then that’s all that matters to me. I won’t stop being there, whatever it is you need, I’m here.”

The wave of emotion came rushing back and tears threatened to spill from your eyes, and you found yourself pressing yourself tighter to him still so there were absolutely no gaps between you. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”

“I love you, giving up is never an option.” Hunter murmured as he kissed the crown of your head.

“I love you too.” You croaked as you fought through the lump in your throat.

You stayed like that for a couple more minutes before you finally pulled away.

Hunter wiped away a few stray tears that had escaped your eyes. “Fancy an early night?”

“Yeah.” You said through a deep exhale as the exhaustion you’d been fighting with came crashing into you. “That sounds good.”

3 weeks later.

“How’s your pain? Anymore headaches?” You asked Hunter as the two of you wandered arm in arm through the main square. You had been keeping a watchful eye in the time that had passed but he hadn’t had any bad episodes of late.

“Everything feels back to normal.” Hunter replied. “And you? How are you sleeping these days?” From what he could tell, you were sleeping through the night but that didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t still there.

“No nightmares at all.” You said with a relieved sigh. The weight of what you’d endured was no longer keeping you down. It had no control over you anymore. You’d thrown yourself back into mediating again and that also seemed to help a lot.

You both walked in easy silence, smiling at the clones from Tantiss who had stayed and at the merchants shouting out enticing deals and offerings from their stalls as you passed by.

“Although, there’s one thing I need…”

You glanced at him expectantly.

“Can you try it now? I should be fine.”

You hadn’t done it since settling down here in case it was too much. “You’re sure?” You double checked.

Hunter nodded. It was the final step to the normality that he craved.

You both paused and headed over to the side walkway of the colonnade that offered shelter from the open area. You reached out into his familiar Force signature, the connection you formed with it giving you an extra sense of security and warmth. How does this feel?

Hunter closed his eyes and breathed out a serene sigh as he heard your voice in his head, but it felt like everything finally clicked back into place. Then, he felt the gentle press of your lips against his. He reacted automatically and placed his hands on your waist as he returned the embrace.

“What was that for?” He whispered against your lips as you parted.

“It’s part of the check up process.” You murmured before you took half a step back to look at him properly, but you kept your arms looped around his neck so that he was still close to you.

Hunter gave you a fond smile. “Ah, of course.” He sweetly stroked his thumb along your jawline.

You shut your eyes and leaned into his touch.

“Are you happy?” Hunter asked after a few beats of silence.

You dropped your arms and looked at him in surprise. “Yes, of course I am!” You looked at him, worry furrowing across your brow. “What brought that on?”

Hunter awkwardly ran a hand through his hair. “I know things haven’t been easy since we arrived here. It didn’t get off to the peaceful start that I’d hoped for. I just want to make sure it’s still what you want and that you’re definitely feeling better.”

You were caught off guard by the emotions that caught in your throat. What did you do to deserve such a man? “I am very content and happy here; Hunter.” You took a hold of each of his hands. “I’m very content and happy being here with you.” You let out a faint, slightly embarrassed laugh, “I am very much in love with you, you silly man. Every day that I wake up beside you, every day that I get to come home to you and every day I just get to be around you is a day that reminds me that how lucky I am.” You removed your hands and lightly followed the lines of his face tattoo. “Are you happy?”

“Completely.” Hunter murmured as his eyes fluttered shut as he fell completely complaint under your touch.

“Good. Settling down here is what exactly what I want, things just weren’t settling down as quickly as I would’ve liked but it’s different now. We’re both doing much better, it’s a good thing.” You kissed his cheek and delicately brushed your fingers through the shorter strands of hair at the front of his head. I love you, that’s never changed, and it never will. Does that about cover everything?

“Almost.” Hunter said huskily as his own love for you overcame him.

Before you could question what he meant, he tugged you in tight to him and kissed you passionately. You felt him cradle the hinge of your jaw, silently asking permission to deepen the kiss and you granted him access without a second thought. You tangled your fingers in his hair and pressed yourself close to him. You allowed yourself a few minutes to just get lost in the pleasure he was giving you, but you remembered where you were and with a groan, you withdrew from his embrace.

It hurt you to pull away and from the way Hunter just insistently pushed you back against the stone column and carried on kissing and raking his teeth along your neck, he wasn’t impressed with stopping either. “We- we came here for groceries.” You hummed distractedly as you found yourself titling your head to give him easier access.

“So, we’ll get them tomorrow.” Hunter responded simply as he kissed behind your ear and brushed his fingers under your shirt and along the soft skin of your stomach.

“We have- have no f- food and-” You attempted to protest but now his mouth was doing wonderful things along your pulse point that was making you feel very lightheaded.

“That’s fine. What I’m in the mood for, only you can give me.” Hunter teasingly dipped his fingers just under the waistband of your leggings.

You forced yourself to get a grip before you were too far gone. “Get off.” You playfully shoved at his chest with an exasperated shake of your head.

Hunter inclined his head in surrender, “How about you shop, and I meet you at home?” He offered as he stopped his teasing and removed himself from you.

“Is this your bizarre way of just wanting to get out of a chore?” You joked, crossing your arms and feigning irritation.

“No, I just think that if I stay, we’re going to wind up getting done for public indecency and it would be entirely my fault.”

Despite his admission, you still saw a faint but lustful glint in his eyes and you knew he was envisioning precisely what would happen if the two of you remained by this column. And you knew both of you would decide it was worth the risk. You gulped as you hastily said before you lost control of yourself, “I’ll see you at home.”

Hunter released a low chuckle before he kissed you softly once more, the promise of what was to come still lingered behind the action despite his best attempts to keep it brief.

You took a few hesitant steps away him and then gathered yourself and went about your task- your walk brisker than before.

Hunter watched you before he moved out from the shelter of the pillar. He spotted Omega sitting with Lyana by the Maya tree. He called over to her.

“What’s up?” Omega asked breezily as she jogged over to him.

“Can you round up the boys and meet me at home? I’ll get Echo on comms.”

“How come?” Omega asked curiously.

“There’s a mission I’m gonna need all your help with. But it needs to just be the five of us.” He indicated to where you were making a purchase. “Think you can get Lyana to delay her return?”

“A mission? Then why can’t-” An excited gasp left her as she saw the silent but confirming look that Hunter gave her. They’d all been eagerly waiting for this. “Yes! I’m on it!” She sprinted off back to Lyana, chaotically relaying the instructions before she ran go find the others.

Hunter laughed to himself as he saw her enthusiastic departure before he hustled off back home and readied the comm channel for Echo. It didn’t take long for the clone to answer.

“You better be calling for the reason I hope you’re calling for.” Echo said by way of greeting.

“Think you can help me out?” Hunter replied with a validatory nod at the holoimage of Echo and he saw the way Echo’s shoulders lifted as he realised it was finally going to happen. Hunter had talked to them all about it in the days after arriving on Pabu and it had been met with an enthusiastic yet somehow still teasing response. It reminded him of how he felt back before the two of you officially got together, with the others just waiting for it to happen. He’d wanted to do it sooner, but your circumstances changed, and so he wanted to wait until both of you were recovered. And, whilst they’d all accepted his decision to hold off, they had been impatient for this day for both genuine well-being purposes but also because they wanted it for the two of you- his family were very supportive and insistent on him doing this. With things faring better, he felt comfortable doing it now. “I don’t want to take you away from anything urgent or-”

“Name it!” Echo said with a pleased smile.

Before he could get into what he needed Echo to do, he heard the door open. Hunter half-turned to see the crowd of eager and motivated faces made up of Omega and his brothers.

All of them gathered round him and Echo’s hologram.

Hunter took a deep inhale and exhale. In a strange way, this was going to be one of the most important yet daunting missions he’d undertaken. “Alright, we don’t have long before she gets home. Here’s what I need…”

Tagging: @noeasyisnoisy, @notgonnaedit, @arctrooper69, @andreaaxy, @dominoeffectsworld, @allthingsimagines , @nightmonkeysstuff , @jellybeanstacey0519 , @callsign-denmark , @superbookishhufflepuff , @qvnthesia @justsomerandompersonintheworld

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eriexplosion · 9 months ago

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Tech Lives: An Ungodly Long Essay

(AKA: Turns out that my Tech Lives compilation post comment was actually a threat.)

There have been hundreds if not thousands of posts since Plan 99 aired wondering if Tech might have made it after his fall - it's probably been brought up more than any other hanging plot point, even after season 2 scooped up Omega and left us on a massive cliffhanger. Now that season 3 has started, though, Omega and Crosshair are home (for now) but we have received an almost aggressive lack of Tech info. So, I've gathered up some of the stronger Evidence for why Tech might be fashionably late but still on his way back from The Void!

THE LEAD UP

So to start, let's go back to what came before the whole Incident. This will focus mostly on season 2, seeing as that was definitely Tech's season to shine, but with bits about plotlines in season 1. Which brings us to our first bit, that's not really evidence so much as some gentle push-back on a common argument.

Doomed By Character Development?

We've all seen this particular situation before - a character is slated for a tragic death, so just before it happens the writers gives them a little extra relevance to the plot to make sure the audience really feels it when the time comes. The Clone Wars was especially good at this, giving characters like Fives an arc of his own that ended in his tragic death. Season 7 gave us a better look at Jesse, first in the Bad Batch's intro arc and then again through the Siege of Mandalore, all to bring us to the chip activation that led to his ultimate death.

When season 2 started off with one of the two intro episodes spotlighting Tech and our first breather episode of the season also spotlighting him, people started to get worried. So is it fair to say that his spotlight in season 2 was setting him up for a permadeath?

Looking at it, I don't think so, for multiple reasons. For one, Tech didn't just get a spotlight episode, his development dominated a good chunk of the whole damned season, often taking priority over the other characters that wouldn't be dropped into the mists. While giving a little bit of character development to a doomed character can be a good move, giving ALL your development to a doomed character ends up feeling like a good portion of your season was actively pointless.

The Bad Batch is not an open ended show. It seems to have been planned for the three seasons it got, and they would have gone into it knowing they had a set amount of time to work with. Dedicating so much time to developing Tech in preparation for a character death takes away all of their opportunity to develop, well, anything else.

But, along with the amount of time that was dedicated to Tech as a character through season 2, they also didn't develop him in the ways that most often get used for a doomed character. Namely...

That Sure Is A Lot Of Open Plot Lines

And not one of them got tied up. Currently, Tech has two open plot lines to himself, both started in season 2, as well as a key place in the overall show narrative arc. As the overall show narrative arc takes precedence, we'll start with that.

The Bad Batch sets up a few different narrative arcs very early. One is if clones can be more than soldiers - this is the central thing that we see them struggling against from the start, they've been created to be soldiers and don't know much else about how to function in the world. Theoretically this arc can be fulfilled with one or two of them still dying as soldiers, as long as a few of them make it to find a new life for themselves.

The arc that can't be fulfilled without everyone though is the ongoing thread of reuniting the batch. Much of the show is geared towards making the viewer want this specific end result, as soon as they talk about Crosshair, Omega says they'll just have to get him back and complete their family. The end of season 1 teases us with this only to pull it away at the last moment, then season 2 teases us with it again only to yet again pull it away, this time seemingly permanently.

Ending one of your key narrative threads you've been using to draw audiences in only 2/3rds of the way into the show and without ever resolving it... well it would be a choice. If Tech is gone for good then the last time we saw everyone together would be the end of season 1. Rewatches would lack impact because something that was made to seem so vital ended up going nowhere, and the series finale would never quite reach the height that hearing the full batch theme kick in over the team fighting droids together did. It absolutely destroys the central narrative to leave him gone without ever having reunited the family.

And then there's his personal plots.

Let's start with the obvious one. Tech got a whole potential love interest this season and they absolutely did not resolve a damn thing about it.

Again, this takes a trope that we all know - the young army man that's going to go home and finally marry his girl, who has his whole life ahead of him, but dies tragically in his final mission - and seemingly intentionally subverts the beats. Because what makes the trope work is that the plot line is resolved as soon as that young man decides how he's going to move forward. He can't die uncertain of if he's going to marry his girl, he has to make a decision, and the longer we spend on the relationship to his girl the stronger the decision has to be to consider the narrative line resolved and free him up for some tragedy.

Tech/Phee is a tentative little 'will they or won't they' romance. They're flirting, they're feeling each other out, they're seeing if they're compatible. To tie up this narrative line we would have to find out if they are or not, get a yes or a no on the question. Will they or won't they? We simply don't know because the writers didn't put a resolution in.

We do get the traditional pre-mission scene with them, which would normally be when we get the first kiss or perhaps the promise of a date, either of which would have had me digging Tech's grave for him to fall into from the second it happened. Or even a 'we can't do this right now, but maybe some day it will be the right time' which would have been a kind of lukewarm resolution but would have at least represented a decision.

Instead we get a scene that almost aggressively refuses to resolve anything. They have an awkward interaction, but not one that says they won't get together, no promises are made for the future, no decision point is reached, and the plot line is still dangling wide open when Tech falls to his supposed death. If we truly leave it off here, well, what was the Tech/Phee subplot for? Why did we spend precious time on it when it could have been spent on something else, if it was meant to make Tech's death hit harder why did it not go further?

A second subplot with Tech is that he certainly made the most progress on seeing options outside of the Empire - it starts early on in Ruins of War when he meets Romar and gets his eyes opened to the idea of cultures that existed unconnected to the war. Serenno existed before the war and before the separatists, and Romar introduces Tech to that idea of an ongoing culture. He gets a taste of racing in front of a cheering crowd, leans further into his teaching of Omega and gets new insights from her regarding their lives as soldiers, his relationship with Phee picks up right when he finds out that she is interested in the preservation of cultures. It's a quiet little subplot, but Tech was seeing the full scope of what the galaxy contained beyond being a soldier in a war.

But, like the Tech/Phee, it never resolves. He never decides to settle down, he never chooses to stop being a soldier or even openly discusses the idea of what life will look like after. Rescuing Crosshair isn't positioned as a final mission that they have to complete in order to give up their lives as soldiers. Without that decision point being reached, the plot stays open, we never find out what he Would Have Done so we don't get a sense of the future that he would lose by dying, which is what the purpose of these types of plots is for a planned permadeath.

The Kaminoans don't create without purpose and writers working on a three season timeline don't typically write without it either. So if we spent the time on Tech/Phee but Tech is dead before it ever went anywhere, if we spent time on Tech's relationship with being something other than a soldier but he never really pursues it, what is the payoff?

Too Much of a Survivor To Die?

There's also the matter of how they chose to build Tech's character this season. Namely they beefed that man's skills up incredibly high making it intensely unbelievable that he's dead without seeing some sort of concrete proof. Things we know about Tech as of the end of season 2 include:

Incredible pain tolerance - Tech fractures his femur in Ruins of War and seems shockingly unbothered by it. The femur is frequently listed as one of the most painful bones to break. This is not a broken toe the man is hobbling around on, he fractured the strongest bone in the body and kept going through the woods. He physically fought and killed a man with that busted femur.

Lightning fast mental processing - this is of course on display nowhere so much as Faster where he's put up against droids and wins by taking calculated risks that no one else is willing to try.

A cool head in stressful circumstances - this one is hilarious because he outright says it, but Tech does demonstrate time and time again that when it comes down to it, he's able to keep calm no matter the circumstances.

Essentially, we spend the entirety of season 2 setting up why Tech is the perfect person to drop out of the sky and have him survive. He has the ability to keep calm and come up with a plan in seconds and he has the grit to keep moving even if he's grievously injured once he hits the ground. When you set a character up like this, you can still kill them, but you have to work harder to do it convincingly. Leaving Tech not at the moment of death but with probably at least a minute to act in and then not showing us the body is the exact opposite.

We have a moment in The Crossing showing us Tech's precise aim, and it comes up again to brutal effect when he shoots out the connection on the rail car. If moments through the season were used to set up that particular instant of the finale, then we can't discount the numerous scenes demonstrating his survival skills as being irrelevant to his chances.

Plus, looking back at Ruins of War - one of the big moments in the episode is towards the end, where Romar tells Tech, "I'm a survivor. Remember?" The camera then lingers on Tech for a long moment. It's not the kind of action that demonstrates his capabilities as above, but it works to associate the words with Tech in the viewers mind. Romar is a survivor, and Tech is a survivor too. And when you intend to kill someone off, it's kind of an odd choice to spend that whole season setting them up as a survivor.

THE FALL

Which brings us to the scene itself. Plan 99, implied to be one of the last ditch plans that they have. It's absolutely a heartbreaking scene, and one that can be tough to analyze when it's so well done, because it's rough to watch repeatedly. But, it's worth doing, because the scene itself is FULL of questions, some structural others more based in the visual presentation.

What is Plan 99?

Well, that's just it, we don't actually know.

We know what it's implied to be, a self sacrifice plan where one of the batch gives their life for the others to get away. But in show it's never actually defined, leaving the full meaning of Plan 99 up to interpretation. It could be as simple as what it's implied to be, but that brings up questions like 'why not provide any lead up or foreshadowing for it?' and 'does killing yourself actually count as a plan?'

Removing the assumptions from it gives us room to speculate. Is the plan actually that they leave him behind, dead or alive? Hunter ordered them to do so without a plan number in season 1, but he is the sergeant, so plan 99 could easily be something that bypasses his authority - if a batcher calls a plan 99, you go and you don't question his decision. It's certainly closer to a plan if there's something they are supposed to be doing from their end rather than just an announcement of intent.

It's not strictly evidence one way or another, but it is something of note when Tech's entire sacrifice is based around a plan that we're not privy to the details of. TBB has hidden its twists in ambiguity before, so it would not be the first time that it let us assume something only to pull the rug out later. But ambiguity is not the only thing that makes this scene stand out in the raising questions department.

Pacing Goes Out The Window

Generally speaking, a self sacrifice is the climax of an episode. Think Kanan, Hardcase, Gregor, Hevy, etc - Even a minor character sacrificing their life tends to make up the most climactic portion of any given episode, let alone one of the characters from the title squad. It gets to be the big central moment, the big rush of music and feeling, the pinnacle of the viewers attention.

Tech's sacrifice is not. It happens around 5 minutes into the episode, is rapidly moved past with barely a moment to think, and then the actual climax is Omega's capture on Ord Mantell. They even repeat the music when Omega is captured, except much stronger this time, making it clear that this is the emotional crux of the episode, this is the scene that is supposed to stick with you.

The opportunity to make it the climax of an episode was certainly there. The storyline could have been adjusted to put Tech's fall at the end of The Summit, allowing more time in Plan 99 for processing his loss and making it feel final. The pacing choice is one that doesn't allow the viewer to process the loss, only giving us maybe a couple minutes of time with actual emotional reactions before we're barreling off to the next plot point. Why was Tech's death de-emphasized within the episode if it is indeed our last moment with this central character?

Tarkin, Eriadu, & Saw Gerrera

A lot goes into the set-up for Plan 99. We have Tarkin's base on Eriadu as the setting they're working within, going up against Tarkin for the first time since early season 1. This is the big leagues, and something that's come up in multiple interviews is that when going into the den of one of the franchise's big bads we have to have consequences, something to demonstrate that Tarkin is not to be trifled with.

Sounds reasonable enough. Except Tarkin doesn't actually do anything in either of these episodes. The thing that actually threw them off was Saw's planning mixing in with their own.

All Tarkin does upon finding out that the batch is stuck on the rail is order an air strike and ignore that this would kill many of his own men. This is certainly evil, but it's standard Imperial evil. Rampart would have given that order. Hemlock would have given that order. The guy in Tipping Point that we know for 5 minutes before he fried himself would have given that order.

So if the point of this finale was to demonstrate Tarkin's power, then bringing Saw in both complicates the plot and devalues what they're claiming they are trying to show. So is the point to get them to Tantiss? No, because they fail in that. They don't plant the tracker, they're no closer to finding Crosshair than they were before.

By all accounts the point of the whole endeavor is in fact just to drop Tech off a sky rail for reasons unknown and injure Omega to force them to go back to Ord Mantell. These two things could have happened anywhere in any way of course, so why choose Eriadu and why choose to complicate the plot by introducing Saw rather than letting Tarkin handle the job?

They're questions we don't have answers to yet, but they're very hard to get answers to if Tech is dead and completely out of the picture. Having a dead body on Eriadu is fairly useless to the plot, having a living Tech on Eriadu though? That has potential to move them huge leaps forward in a very short amount of time once we bring him back in. Especially given his conversation with Saw prior to everything going downhill - Tech was in favor of gathering intel from the facility rather than destroying it.

And what about Saw, anyway? If he was genuinely there to cause problems and fly away, again, that's a plot wrinkle that isn't needed and took time away from everything else. If he's there because they needed someone to pick Tech up though? There's potential there.

Did Tech's Sacrifice Mean Anything?

In universe, Tech's sacrifice means everything, of course. It's a decision made in the moment to risk everything to save his family. It's a noble deed and one he does without hesitation. But pulling away from that narrow scope of an in universe perspective, what did we accomplish narratively with his fall?

Well... not much actually! They got over the bump in the road that they encountered all of five seconds ago and promptly crashed headfirst into another, different bump in the road. Tech's dramatic sacrifice didn't allow them to escape unharmed, it didn't allow them to find Crosshair, it just allowed them to move a few steps forward, after which Omega is almost killed and then captured, which is a fairly weak reason to sacrifice a whole major character.

But not every character death is exclusively about narrative, sometimes it's about the character arc itself. So does this close out anything for Tech's character development? Again, not really. Tech has always been completely loyal to the squad and would have risked anything for his family. He never had a choice not to fall, it was either just him or the whole team, and he is an endlessly logical actor. The action would have played out the same had it happened in the series premier or the season 1 finale, or any other time in the show. If anything it's a backtrack on his character by putting him solidly back into the soldier box that the show is trying to let the clones grow out of.

Maybe it's not about Tech's character though, maybe it's about everyone else's! Does his death change anyone's trajectory? Again... no, not really. We'll get into season 3's lack of mentioning Tech later, but in the immediate aftermath of his fall, no one's course or actions is majorly changed because of his loss. Hunter wants to go back to Pabu where it's safe, the same thing he wanted to do before they ever left for this mission. Omega puts herself in danger to save her brothers, which has been one of her defining traits since season one. Wrecker is following Hunter's lead, same as he always did. (We get very little of what Echo hopes to do, but the opening of season 3 reveals that they went back to work with Rex, exactly like they were doing before.)

So narratively nothing required him to die, the character's arc isn't completed, and the other characters aren't motivated to change. If Tech dies here, it's the picture of a shock value death. It doesn't complete or inform his character, it doesn't need to narratively happen in order to put Omega on the path to being captured, and thematically it exists just to give the viewer an unnecessary gut-punch when just the failure to rescue Crosshair and the loss of Omega would have been enough.

Framing is Everything

In a death scene there's nothing more powerful than our final shot of a character. The very last we'll ever see of them, the image that will linger in our minds when we think of that character from then on. This is especially important in animation where everything has to go through several iterations before deciding on what that final look will be. You want it to be impactful, you want the audience to have one final connection to the character before they're gone for good.

So why does Tech die with his helmet on?

If there's one thing TBB is good at, it's their expression work, and a death scene is a perfect place to show off their full range, which is why most deaths meant to have a heavy impact occur with faces unobscured. Crosshair loses his helmet and takes Mayday's off so we can see both of their faces as Mayday dies, Slip, Cade, even Clone X and Wilco, all die helmetless. Looking into older series you have Kanan dying without his mask, Fives, Hardcase, Waxer all dying helmetless with one last good look at their faces and expressions.

And while Tech's helmet gives us a good look at his eyes, the rest of his face goes unseen, and Wrecker's face as he watches this happen is completely obscured. We're denied a look at a lot of their expressions as the decision is made and Plan 99 is executed, rendering it less personal than it otherwise could have been. Tech could have lost his helmet in the blast that knocked him from the rail, Wrecker could have had his helmet knocked off at some point to give us a good look at his expression. TBB isn't known for pulling its punches, so why leave our final look at Tech's face back in The Summit and not here?

Then there's the framing choices. We get some absolutely amazing shots of Tech during the fall, from taking the shot to falling backwards towards the cloudy cover - but here's where some interesting choices are made. Rather than letting our last shot of him be a face up shot that keeps eye contact with the camera as he falls, they make the choice to have him flip over, and we hold the shot as the rail car goes down after him, partially obscuring him.

Which means instead of our last glimpse of Tech being something like this.

We end up with something closer to this.

Which, while we all love those Tech crotch shots is somewhat less impactful emotionally. These frames go through multiple departments and get multiple eyes on them before going through final animation, and no one thought that leaving him face up and unobscured until he disappears into the fog would stick more firmly in the viewer's memory?

The Flip Might be Intentional

And I don't just mean out of universe, as every detail of animation is often intentional, but in universe as well. If you look closely at Tech as he falls, he seems to roll his shoulders back in order to begin flipping over. It was a specific enough detail to send me searching for a reason and I found it in instructions on how to survive a long fall - the first thing that you're supposed to do? Get into the arch position like a skydiver to slow and control your fall.

The flip was important enough to not only include but to include the small detail of Tech intentionally flipping himself over into said position. It's not a confirmation but it's an interesting detail, and one that has very few other reasons to exist.

THE AFTERMATH

Image chosen because even thinking he's alive I didn't want to pull from Omega reacting to the fall on Ord Mantell. Looking at her makes me Sad. So the fall has happened, the rail car has rushed forward and crashed, and Omega fades in and out of consciousness until finally waking up on Ord Mantell to the bad news.

"What if he's hurt?"

Omega is our POV character for the show. We may sometimes see things she doesn't, but emotionally she remains the center of the narrative, the character that the target audience will see themselves in. Her ultimate thoughts on a situation are the closest we have to a clear indicator of our intended takeaway.

So it's interesting that the first thing we hear out of her, having heard that Tech 'didn't make it,' is a firm denial. He can't be gone, he might be hurt, he needs them and they need to go back for him. And, despite Hunter continuing to talk with her about it for a bit, we never actually hear Omega explicitly take it back or verbally acknowledge Tech as dead. The closest we get is 'lost' which she also uses for Echo in The Crossing.

Now, here's where the interpretation between the adult and child audience will likely differ. From an adult perspective, this is a reasonable reaction for a child her age. It comes off as very natural that she doesn't want to accept it and that she doesn't have time to really process that it's true before the scene moves on. It makes sense from an in universe perspective.

However, the main audience is still children who actually are Omega's age and who are being presented with her as their window into this world. And their takeaway, seeing that same scene, is likely to be that Omega is correct. They don't know that Tech's dead, just because an adult says it doesn't make it true and just because Hemlock says it DEFINITELY doesn't mean it's true, they have to go back and check.

If they wanted the main audience to think that Tech is dead for sure, they could have had Omega be the one to say that he's gone, with Hunter simply confirming it for her. Alternatively, Omega accepting it when Hunter tells her would also function in the same way - ultimately, as the POV character, if Omega doesn't accept it there's a strong possibility much of the audience won't accept it either, especially without other evidence.

No Body?

And, as we all know, we simply don't have other concrete evidence. Not only are the batch given no time to look for Tech's body or any confirmation that he died, but we get a whole scene with Hemlock and the goggles where he also confirms verbally that he doesn't have a body either. There's very little reason to have him say this outside of putting a bug in the viewer's ear that he might not be gone for good.

Not only do we have that verbal confirmation, but we have multiple places where a body could have been included or implied without adding much to the runtime.

Easiest place would probably be when Omega passes out - there's a trooper's corpse right there in front of her, and it would have been very easy to make that identifiable as Tech. Have one of the boys check his pulse like Crosshair did with Mayday and then be forced to leave after confirming he's dead. Would it require a little bit of fudging the details of how he landed so close to them, sure, but it would have been narratively streamlined and easy.

Have Hemlock bring his helmet rather than his goggles (and damage it in a way clearly incompatible with survival) or confirm that he did find a body but has no use for the goggles.

Put the body in Hemlock's lab when Omega is brought there at the end of the episode. Have a sheet covering him even if you want and just one of his hands hanging out, especially the one with the distinctive light on the back of it. Give us her reaction to that.

These are just the ones that don't involve adding scenes or making major changes - instead, in a franchise known for bringing back everyone and their grandmother especially if there's no body, they chose to leave it extremely vague.

Reused Score

The soundtrack for Tech's sacrifice is fantastic, I don't think anyone can argue that. In fact it's so good that it's used occasionally used as a reason for why he's dead for real. If it's a fakeout, why go so hard on the music?

It almost sounds like a reasonable argument, except that the music isn't even unique to Tech's fall. We get the same motif later in the episode with Omega's capture, and it actually comes in even harder and more impactful there than it did with Tech falling.

Reusing bits of the music has two results. It lessens the impact of hearing it with Tech if it is in fact his Death music, because it makes it clear that he is not the central feeling of the episode but rather, Omega's capture is. As mentioned before, deaths are usually the climax of their own episodes partially to avoid them being upstaged by any other plot points, but here Omega's capture is fully prioritized over the loss of one of our central characters.

The second result is that it changes the meaning of the music. It's no longer meant specifically to underscore a tragic death, but rather a more general one of loss and separation. And if it's simply about that separation, then it no longer requires Tech to be dead to have that same impact. They're apart from each other, and that's painful enough.

SEASON 3 SO FAR

Which of course finally brings us to season 3! We're five episodes in as of the posting of this, so a full 1/3rd of the season down, which gives us a good idea of how they're handling the whole grief aspect of this scenario.

They Aren't!

That's right, we simply have not directly acknowledged or dealt with the whole 'watching your squadmate fall to a presumed horrible death' thing even once in five episodes. Tech has been mentioned by name twice, we've seen his goggles once, and Wrecker makes one sideways reference to him having not made it back.

In universe, there is a several month timeskip and it seems to be implied that the majority of the grief milestones happened in that gap. For example, we don't see Crosshair finding out from Omega, we don't see Omega grieving her brother, we don't see Phee finding out (more on her in a bit) despite her fledgling romance. Months of grieving and processing skipped over and what comes out the other side is single line mentions that go by in seconds.

This is especially apparent after episode 5, where we got something to compare it to. Crosshair has a long, painful moment of grieving with Mayday's helmet when they return to Barton IV. It's deep, personal, and intimate and we take a minute with him gathering up the helmets of Mayday and his men to set them up on the crates the same way that Mayday had honored them.

Mayday is a one episode character that was important to only a single character, Crosshair - Tech is a core member of the team present through two full seasons and shown as close to every member of the squad. Yet the single scene grieving Mayday is longer and more emotionally gripping than every short mention of Tech so far in season 3.

Narrative Grief

Seeing characters grieve their loved ones onscreen is about more than just the characters themselves. It's also part of the viewer experience - through the characters' grief, we're able to process our own grief at the loss. It makes it feel real, it makes it feel personal, and the amount of grieving needs to be proportionate to the character's importance in the story.

This is especially true in a show written for children like The Bad Batch. Kids don't typically have the same experience with death as adults, and a well written main character death within a children's show will need more time and energy spent towards making the loss feel real. We see this with deaths like Kanan's; it wasn't Jedi Night that told the viewer that Kanan was really, truly dead, it was Dume, where the characters mourned him and dealt with the aftermath.

Currently, with Tech, we do see holes in the team that make us miss Tech but they remain completely unaddressed by the characters. We see Tech's goggles, but Hunter isn't looking at them, he's looking at Lula. Omega mentions Tech having taught her all the plans, but without any real sadness on her or Crosshair's part. The closest we get to actually bringing it up are Wrecker saying 'not everyone came back' and Echo mentioning the datapad would be difficult without Tech, and both of those are only seconds long before moving on. They don't serve as any kind of catharsis for the viewer, relying more on gut punch impact and keeping the wound open rather than allowing it to heal. The difference between the treatment of Tech's death and Mayday's just makes it more stark.

How Do You Like Yearning?

Interestingly, though, it strongly resembles the writing team's handling of another situation: Crosshair's departure from the team in season 1 vs Echo's in season 2. The show even drew a lot of flack for the lack of discussion on Crosshair's betrayal, as outside of a couple conversations the matter often went unremarked on. Echo leaving, on the other hand, got a whole episode dedicated to processing the loss immediately after it happened.

So what was the difference? Crosshair's departure is part of a long term plot point. We're supposed to want him back, we're supposed to want the team to talk about him, anything that would ease the tension. The writers on the other hand want that tension to remain until it's time to actually resolve the plot. So we get those slow drips in between bigger encounters, we get opportunities for Crosshair to come home that he doesn't take, and we don't get the catharsis of the team actually talking about any of it. We're left to want and imagine it, using the yearning to keep it on people's minds more than anything.

If Crosshair had been discussed on screen long enough for the characters to actually come to terms with his absence, though, that would have made the plot feel more settled and resolved early on. It might be conversations we want to see, but it doesn't keep the viewer on edge and craving a resolution. Best case scenario we're just not as desperate for Crosshair to come home - worst case scenario we accept that he won't be returning and find the fact that he eventually does to be unrealistic.

Echo on the other hand gets their absence processed immediately, because their absence from the team is not meant to be a huge plot point. It's something the team has to deal with, yes, and the viewer wants to see them again just like Omega does, but Echo returning isn't meant to be a maybe, and it's not supposed to keep the viewer wondering and worrying. It's a when, not an if.

Similarly to Crosshair, Tech has never felt like a resolved plot point. We don't get confirmation on his death, we don't get any long term grieving, and we get drip fed acknowledgements that pry the wound back open. If we actually see the team discuss and come to terms with their grief and loss, the plot point closes, the wound closes and we begin to fully accept a team without Tech in it, which makes it harder to reinsert him into the storyline if he is in fact alive.

If he's truly gone for good, what is the point of denying closure to the audience? We know that they are capable of writing an intense mourning moment that feels completely in character for otherwise emotionally repressed men such as Crosshair, so why not give us that with the team mourning for Tech? A memorial, an intimate moment with the goggles, a short scene of Crosshair finding out about the loss, or anything at all really? Once again it's something that makes sense if he's alive and we're simply not being shown yet, but makes very little sense to not capitalize on if he's dead.

What's to Come

We have ten episodes of season 3 to go, and a lot to cover. Reviews have indicated that Tech is not explicitly brought up in the first eight, so the earliest we could possibly have a survival reveal is in episode 9. Will it actually happen? Maybe, maybe not. Though interestingly episode 9, The Harbinger, is almost exactly one year after Plan 99, just like The Return aired almost one year after The Outpost. Could mean nothing, but they do enjoy their anniversary dates.

One thing we do know for sure is coming up is Phee's inclusion - she's seen in the official trailer, as well as briefly in a recent twitter spot. This is interesting as Phee is, of course, Tech's teased love interest, and her connection to Tech has been emphasized multiple times, including on her Databank entry and the official 'what you need to know about season 3' guide. When she comes onto the scene, it's very likely that more information about Tech will too.

MARKETING, INTERVIEWS, & SOCIAL MEDIA

I wanted to keep this mostly focused on what can be seen within the show itself, but it's impossible to talk about whether or not Tech is alive without pointing to the absolutely bizarre messaging from the cast and crew, as well as the marketing choices surrounding his sacrifice. (Example: the Instagram Mourning Filter they layered over him in the official trailer, as seen above) I won't get quite as detailed here as in the above, but it does have to be mentioned.

Constant Focus

In between the end of season 2 and the posting of the season 3 trailer in late January, there were several posts on various official Star Wars media. The majority of them were about Tech and Plan 99. In fact, I don't think I ever saw anything mentioning the giant 'Omega's been captured' cliffhanger, just Tech. Over and over again.

Once a character is dead, marketing generally stops caring about them. They're forward focused after all, they want you coming back for what's to come not lingering on what won't be relevant again. So why the constant focus on Tech?

And it wasn't just the social media either - a huge portion of the trailers and reels included old footage of him too. For the most part this was from Plan 99 and bringing up his fall again to rip open those old wounds, but in one case they included action footage from The Summit. This was an interesting case, because the majority of people watching wouldn't have recognized it immediately. Fittingly, the entire comment section was full of nothing but 'Was that Tech?' style comments, which they would have known was going to be the case to start with.

So why are we so focused on a man that's supposedly dead? If he's genuinely never going to show up again why keep putting him in? Everything? While not even bringing him up all that often in the show? If he's dead, this is a truly bizarre marketing decision.

Never Say Die

In interviews or in official material. For several months the word 'dead' was never used for Tech anywhere, not in interviews, not in official material, nowhere. It took until January 23rd for all of the databank entries to be updated, and among all of the main cast he's only referred to as 'killed' once, and it's on Hunter's page not even his own. Then, the Friday before the premier, an interview came out referring to him as dead - on the part of the interviewer, not the creators themselves.

Everything else seems to use a variety of euphemisms. His sacrifice, his absence, his loss, he 'plummeted out of sight', he 'fell from a tram car', he did absolutely anything it's possible to do except outright die apparently.

It's an odd choice when there's known controversy over if he's dead or not. The standard operating protocol of course, in a planned comeback, is to refer to them as dead anyway and allow fandom to fuel its own speculation, but with a fandom as devastated as TBB's was, it's quite possible that the odd behavior had to be introduced just to keep speculation going. The only interviews that sound remotely final came out right before the episodes started coming out - if they had done that from the beginning, the chances of people outright refusing to come back to the show likely would have been higher.

Much like the marketing, this is not necessarily proof of anything - but in combination with the multiple odd things in the show itself, it's certainly suspicious. Speaking of suspicious...

What an Odd Thing to Say

The cast and crew themselves have not been skimping on making strange comments when it comes to the Tech situation.

There is of course the well known Joel Aron (lighting director for the series) tweet that came out the day of the Celebrations panel (AKA when the Tech trauma was at an all time high) and in direct reply to a fan that was having a hard time with Tech's death. It's hard to take it as anything but a reference to Tech given the timing, and it was certainly taken as being about Tech in the quote tweets. If it's not about Tech, why tease the fandom with it? And the specification for it being a mid s3 episode as well...

Also from the day of Celebrations, and from the panel itself, we have Michelle Ang saying in front of God and everybody, that Tech "doesn't come back... in this episode, at least." At the time there was a possibility she didn't know and was just leaving it open, but with that only being ten months ago and the extremely long timeframe of animation, it's almost certain that she would have been done with all primary recording by that point. If you know he's not coming back, how do you accidentally imply that he is with no one correcting it?

Dee Bradley Baker, when asked for a farewell message from Tech at a con, came out with "the life of a soldier is fulfilled by fulfilling his mission and supporting his brothers. And this was the end of mine. And that's a good thing." Which was a perfectly serviceable goodbye right up until he said that the end of Tech's (life? soldier's life? mission?) was a good thing.

During an instagram interview we have Deana Kiner, one of the composers, in response to the interviewer talking about the final episode containing a major loss, saying, "It's kind of a loss... It's complicated." The claim on twitter was that this was about Omega, because everyone knows that when someone mentions the major loss in Plan 99 they're definitely talking about Omega.

So is Tech alive? Is Tech dead? We still don't know. But while one or two of the above might be a coincidence, having all of them at once coalesce around this single character death is a lot to chew over. The Bad Batch team has shown willingness to address grief and loss prior, as well as a willingness to show us death onscreen and front and center. So why, with such an important character, sidestep it all in order to keep it vague? Why keep it from sounding final for so long, if the intent the entire time was for him to be dead for good?

We won't know until he either shows back up or the show ends. If Tech's alive, all of the above starts to make sense. If he's dead... well a lot of things will just never quite add up. I feel that this team has shown enough willingness to follow up on their trailing plotlines that they've earned my trust. Fingers crossed for a satisfying resolution for all of us, and for our boy Tech, whatever that resolution may be.

#the bad batch #tbb #tbb tech #the bad batch spoilers #tbb spoilers #the bad batch speculation #this thing is some 7500 words i might have an obsession problem

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wolfoftheblackflames · 9 months ago

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Don't mind me, I've been taken into a chokehold by cuteness again, enjoy!

(Takes place just after episode 5 and before episode 6)

It was just another normal day in the hotel. Everyone was off doing their own thing. Husk went out with Angel and Cherri to a bar while Alastor visited Cannibal Town for a feast with Rosie. Lucifer relaxed on one of the couches in the lobby, reading a good book with Charlie happily scribbling away at more plans for the hotel. He smiled fondly at his daughter, sparing her a glance. "Already busy as a bee, I see." He spoke warmly, smiling at her.

Charlie looked over at her father and giggled. "Well, I can't help it, I have that meeting with Heaven in a few days." She replied. However, her brows furrowed as she started to fidget. "I just hope it goes well, I'm so nervous."

Lucifer looked over at his daughter, his eyes softening. "Charlie.." He placed his book down and went over to sit beside his daughter, placing one of his hands on her shoulder. "My little apple pie, I know Heaven won't be easy, but I'm so proud of you." His red eyes sparkled, but they soon flashed some worry. "I'm sorry I can't go with you, which is why I'm here now, to help you if you need it."

Charlie sniffled a bit and nodded. "Thanks, Dad. I think I'm going to go walk around for a while, clear my head." She lightly moved his hand away and stood up from the soft velvety seating. Lucifer watched as his daughter left the room but blinked, spying a certain someone peeking out of the kitchen.

"Ah, Maggie, perfect timing!" He smirked once Charlie was out of earshot. "I need your help with something." He walked over to Vaggie, who tilted her head at him.

"It's Vaggie, sir, and what do you need help with?" The moth demoness replied, looking curious at the King of Hell.

Lucifer took Vaggie lightly by the arm and dragged her into the kitchen with a cute grin. "As you saw, my little apple pie is looking a little nervous. So I was thinking, why not we bake something for her to help calm her nerves? You know what she likes, right?" The man replied a little nervously since it's been awhile since he made Charlie something that wasn't a rubber duck.

Vaggie blinked but rubbed her chin, liking the idea. "She really likes sweets, so why not something like cookies or a cake?"

Lucifer beamed and used his magic to poof in some ingredients. "Excellent, so um, do you know how to make those? Or should I get the boys to run out and grab some?" He looked a little awkward since it had been just a month since he got out of his slump and started to get to know his daughter again.

He blinked, earning a chuckle from Vaggie. "I think she'd like it more if it was hand-made, sir. And no, I haven't exactly tried baking, so we could learn together?" She scratched her cheek offering a chance to bond with her girlfriend's father.

Though what seemed like a bonding time between the two turned into a messy fiasco as smoke surged out of the kitchen, causing the princess to yelp and rush over. "What in hell happened in here?!" She wafted the smoke as Razzle and Dazzle began to ventilate it.

Vaggie and Lucifer looked a little sheepish at her as the king held what looked to be a slightly burned batch of apple shaped cookies with little ducks painted on them. "Uh note to self, don't let your dad use the fucking oven. No offense sir." Vaggie dusted some soot off her shirt.

"None taken.." Lucifer laughed nervously and gulped. "We uh... Wanted to surprise you sweetie? Sorry if they look kinda bad.." He motioned to the cookies on the tray.

Charlie couldn't hide a snicker, which turned into a full-blown laugh seeing both the people she loved covered in soot. "You're lucky everyone else is out today." She teased as soon a screech was heard. "Uh oh.."

Nifty came in looking like a feral little gremlin, her lone eye bulging at the sight. "My clean kitchen, I just dusted in here not to long ago!" She whined and soon swatted at the trio with her feather duster. "Out out out, this mess needs to be clean!" She giggled wickedly as the trio moved out of the small demon maid's way.

"You got in trouble, sir." Vaggie chuckled as Lucifer laughed sheepishly.

"Yeah... My bad." The short king replied with a small smile. "Well I should be going now, um nice seeing you and good luck!" He rushed out since Nifty came back out waving a knife.

Charlie snorted and took a cookie from the tray. She smiled fondly at it and bit it, only to nod a bit. "It isn't half bad..."

"Really?" Vaggie looked at her not convinced.

"Ok it's bad. But you two worked so hard on these, sorry..." Charlie winced unable to hide her disgust. Vaggie chuckled softly as Charlie finished the cookie. "What's so funny?" She looked over at her girlfriend.

"Can't believe you just ate that. You could've thrown it away hon." Vaggie looked at Charlie taking her hand. "Still it's sweet of you to do so."

Charlie chuckled and nuzzled Vaggie, only to get soot on her nose. "Ah even here there's soot?!" She whined as Vaggie grumbled.

"Seriously don't let your dad use the oven again. I don't think it'll last with him around." She pinched the bridge of her nose as Charlie laughed.

The two retired to their room as Vaggie needed a shower to get the soot out of her hair. It had also become a darker grey as a result. Charlie, however, looked fondly at the photo of her parents that rested on the wall. "Thanks dad..." Her eyes softened, she felt new found courage swirl inside her, maybe the trip to heaven would go well, but also it felt nice to have her dad back in her life again. A soft kiss to the cheek broke her out of her trance as the blonde looked over. "All better?" She teased with a cheeky grin.

"Mhm, c'mon, I think aside from terrible cookies, some cuddles and a movie would help ease your nerves." Vaggie gave her a soft smile as the two soon curled up on the couch in the room together. Charlie relaxed in Vaggie's embrace, casually laying again the smaller woman's shoulder while her girlfriend lightly massaged her back. The two enjoyed their lazy afternoon together for tomorrow was the big day.

(Hiya! Yes I tried again with another Chaggie fic... I can't help it, I also tried my hand at our smol baby dork boy Luci. Thanks for reading!)

#hazbin hotel #chaggie #charlie morningstar #vaggie #cute as fuck #i wrote this instead of sleeping #lucifer morningstar #hazbin lucifer

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phantom-of-the-501st · 5 months ago

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Audience Comprehension of Grey Areas within Conflict in Media

I haven't written an analysis piece in a while, and while I don't necessarily have any thoughts on specific episodes, or a singular show atm, there's something that I've been thinking about recently that I feel like talking about.

In recent years, I've seen subsets of fandoms becoming less and less understanding of the idea of a "grey area" when it comes to fiction, believing that every situation has a right and wrong side, and that there is no way for two feuding characters to both be the logical party in a conflict. Semi-recently I've seen this in two fandoms that I participate in: The Bad Batch (Hunter vs Crosshair) and Good Omens (Crowley vs Aziraphale). Now I've gone into detail about both of these before, so I'm going to try and trim those discussions down for this post, but it's a similar problem in both fandoms and I feel like looking into it a bit.

Tags for @saturn-sends-hugs @inkstainedhandswithrings @eriexplosion and @nobody-expects-the-inquisitorius in case anyone feels like pitching in

Hunter vs Crosshair

Now the relationship between Hunter and Crosshair was... complicated to say the least. There were so many factors that influenced their actions and decisions, which put both of them in a position of being right and wrong simultaneously. And yet despite them both being at fault, there was an ongoing war within the fandom about who was supporting the right side; were you Team Hunter or Team Crosshair? According to some, you couldn't be both because there was no way both of them could be right, could there?

Team Hunter always seemed to be the popular option, as he was considered the morally superior of the two. However, that doesn't mean that he was without faults. In fact, he was greatly flawed: so focused on his own belief of what was the right choice that he struggled to consider others ideas, reckless and impulsive, stubborn. He was far from perfect. But let's be real, nobody is. And yet, despite all of his flaws, Hunter was considered by many to be a character who could do no wrong, and therefore was the obvious man to support in this ongoing conflict.

So what about Crosshair? Well he was brash, cold, a downright arsehole at points, and chose to stay on the side of the Empire. Surely he couldn't be considered the one in the right here? Well, it's not that simple and it never was.

It all boils down to that moment when The Batch left Crosshair on Kamino at the beginning of S1. Hunter and The Batch didn't have much choice. Their own brother was shooting at them, their lives were at risk, and had they stayed there, they likely would have died or been captured. They couldn't have taken Cross with them because they could not guarantee their own safety. As much as he was their brother, he was a threat to them. But we also have to consider this from Crosshair's perspective. Yes, he was trying to capture his own squad, but he'd been mentally manipulated and was in no position to make rational decisions. He was under the Empire's control. And yet, despite being in danger himself, and needing the help of his brothers, he was left behind. It was understandable that he lost faith in them. But neither side is entirely at fault here. They made the best decision they could in that situation, and no the decisions weren't perfect, but when are they ever?

Let's look at the other crucial moment that always gets brought up in this conversation: Crosshair being left on the Kamino landing platform at the end of S1. I've seen many coming to Crosshair's defence here, saying that the squad had no right to leave their brother there. But let's be honest, it could've been so much worse had they taken him. Yes, Crosshair spent over 30 rotations on that platform, but The Batch didn't know that was going to happen. And Crosshair was refusing to come with them. Had they forced him along, that would've done more damage than good; Crosshair was vulnerable, scared of losing his autonomy. Having his brothers force him onto a ship against his will was going to make him more argumentative and stressed. The best thing the Batch could've done in that situation was respect their brother's choice, which they did.

Throughout the entire conflict in this show, both Hunter and Crosshair were right and wrong. It was never as simple as one side being the "good" side, and the other not, their actions were both fair and unfair. No-one could make perfect choices because no situation could allow that. And yet, there was this general understanding across a section of the fandom that a person's entire moral compass could be determined by which side of the argument they fell on, and that there was no way to accommodate both sides at the same time.

Crowley vs Aziraphale

Which brings me onto conflict number 2: the Ineffable Husbands. The ending of S2 was heartbreaking to say the least, and while it was surprising in the moment, in retrospect, it was completely inevitable. And while I remember just how depressed we were after that ending, I also remember just how angry the fandom got with Aziraphale. Our poor angel took the brunt of the hate and was considered by many people to have been the one in the wrong. But Zira wasn't the only perpetrator of that mess. Both of them were to blame, and the storm that hit was always going to come in at some point.

The ending argument parallels a spat that the two had at the beginning of the season, when Crowley and Aziraphale were trying to decide what to do about Gabriel. Aziraphale supported the "fix the problem" approach, suggesting that they should help the Archangel, while Crowley went for the "ditch the problem" approach, claiming they should just dump him in Dartmoor. And while they were both trying to achieve the same thing (eliminate the Gabriel issue), they had both A) came up with different plans and B) assumed that the other would have come up with the same idea as them. They thought their "exactlys" were the same, until Crowley points out the flaw: "I feel like your exactly and my exactly are different exactlys".

And this is how we ended up with the ending of GO S2. Aziraphale wanted to fix the system: he recognised the flaws, and as someone who had dedicated his entire existence to being a good ambassador for Heaven, had viewed it as the only logical solution. It's the exact response you'd expect from someone still trapped in a toxic religious group, a belief that the flaws in your faith can be rectified, no matter what. He made the choice you'd expect him to but where he stumbled was in expecting Crowley, who he knew had been through a great deal of trauma as a result of what Heaven did, to make the same choice as him. He knew how hurt Crowley had been, so it wasn't fair to expect that he would make the same choice.

And yet the same could be said for Crowley. Given Crowley's trauma, ditching Heaven is a perfectly reasonable solution for him. He knows how twisted their morals are, and understands that realistically, no matter he does, there will always be someone higher up the chain who would thwart any attempts to fix the institutional issues. It was perfectly demonstrated by Gabriel being punished for trying to prevent Armageddon. However, Crowley never told Aziraphale about how Gabriel was exiled from Heaven, so it's entirely unfair for him to expect Zira to make the same choice, when he purposefully withheld information from him.

Just like at the beginning of Season 2, they had both had the same end goal in mind, but their approaches differed and they assumed that the other would make the same decision as then. That was their downfall. So yes, as an audience member, you can have your own opinions on which choice you think is better, but it isn't simply as black and white as one being right and one being wrong. They can both be at fault.

Why do I think it's like this?

Ultimately, I think audience reactions to conflicts like this boil down to three things: availability of information to the audience, escapism, and our own battle with morality.

As an audience member, we will always have different information to the characters themselves. When it came to Hunter and Crosshair, we knew what was happening to both characters, so we couldn't understand why characters were making certain decisions, but it's important to remember that we have more information, so of course our own choices would be different. We have context. The same with Good Omens. Like I said, we know what happened to Gabriel, as does Crowley, but Aziraphale doesn't. So while we can back up Crowley's decision, we can't necessarily fault Zira when he doesn't know what we do.

Additionally, as viewers, we seek escapism. The world is a mess and conflicts have so many layers that sometimes a clear answer isn't always easily found. So when we turn to media, we hope for something clearer, something that will tell us exactly what is right and wrong. Things being so morally grey feels to real for us, so we fight to find the good and bad; we want answers so we build up black and white decisions, even if that isn't how things are actually playing out.

Not only this, but I think our own fight for moral superiority influences our consumption of media. We always want to be the "good" person, so we fight to be on the right side. We don't like being wrong and we judge people's morality by whether or not they agree with us because we don't like the idea of siding with a character that isn't entirely good. But life isn't like that. People aren't like that. We're flawed, we make bad decisions, and there is never a perfect answer to the decisions we make. Yes, some choices will always be better than others, but sometimes things are so grey and murky that we can find support and fault in both sides. However, people don't like that. They want to be right, to be good, so they find what they align with most and claim that as the "correct" side, attacking those that disagree because if they don't side with you, then they must be morally inferior. And in all honestly, I think this has just gotten worse over time.

At the end of the day, not everything is black and white, and your understanding of flaws in a character does not mean that you agree with or support them. It can simply be a case of recognition. Things aren't as clear cut as we would like them to be, they are more complicated, and the sooner we understand that, the sooner we can appreciate just how rich some of these stories and characters can be.

#ya girl is back #for this post at least #I had thoughts so I dumped them here #the bad batch #tbb crosshair #crosshair #tbb hunter #hunter #good omens #the ineffable husbands #crowley #aziraphale #Crowley x aziraphale

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gospelofme · 7 months ago

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A Rambling Essay about Crosshair

I feel like there are lots of characters like Crosshair in Star Wars. Characters that portray themselves to be unfriendly assholes, but are using that to protect a vulnerable, traumatized inner self.

When we meet Crosshair in season 7 of The Clone Wars episode The Bad Batch, he’s an asshole. He and Wrecker start a fight when Cody is injured (Cody is the only “reg” Crosshair has respect for, but I’ll get into this another time). In the episode, A Distant Echo, he brings up the fact that Echo could be dead, or a traitor. He goes so far as to suggest just leaving Echo for dead since he is “just a reg”. This upsets Rex, which was his intention in my opinion, and Crosshair ends up getting punched in the face for it. While this was an important aspect to remember, Crosshair could’ve been more gentle about it. Instead he was arrogant and dismissive, he meant to be cruel with his remarks. This is asshole behavior.

Skipping ahead to The Bad Batch series. When Order 66 comes through, he actively tries to kill Caleb (Kanan). We know the others didn’t have their chips activate, due to their defectiveness (later we do have Wrecker’s activate, but only after a head injury). But Crosshair’s did, partially at least if not fully. He still tried to be part of the squad (not initially reporting Hunter for disobeying Order 66) until his chip’s influence was strengthened. Once that happened, he became loyal to the Empire and thus began the era of Crosshair being their enemy. What he did during this time wasn’t his fault, as he was being controlled by the implanted chip.

However, I wish to draw attention to the episode Reunion in Season 1 of The Bad Batch. Crosshair is injured by the engines of a Star Destroyer activating and burning his face. We were left with three options here.

One: the chip was destroyed by the injury, since it was on the right side of his head. This would result in its removal.

Two: the chip is intact, but has been damaged and may not be fully functioning.

Three: the chip is intact and still functioning as normal, since the injury seems to be just scarring and largely focused on the surface of his skull.

Reason one would bring us to the realization that any action Crosshair was doing post-injury was of his own free will. This is further solidified when Hunter and Crosshair are arguing in the season 1 finale, Crosshair revealing that he had had his inhibitor chip removed a long time ago. He does refuse to tell Hunter when he did this. His hair could’ve hid the removal scar easily, but the procedure would’ve left him with a bandage and a shaved portion of his hair. The others would have noticed. That makes it logical to think the chip was removed when Crosshair was receiving treatment for his injury. But this is also unlikely since I don’t see the Empire removing their source of control from Crosshair.

This brings me to the only option of the chip still being in place and Crosshair just lying to Hunter to make him feel like a failure. I feel like he did this to Hunter for the same reason he told Rex that he would’ve left Echo for dead because he’s “just another reg”. He’s trying to get the other to believe he is just an asshole. Irredeemable.

Later in Kamino Lost, Crosshair is still unwilling to renounce his loyalty to the Empire, but he’s also not actively trying to kill his former team. He even saves Omega at the end, knowing he was the only one who could’ve made that shot.

The latter half of Season 2 is where we start to see the real Crosshair come out. His interactions with Cody and Mayday are turning points for him. Mayday’s murder is the trigger he needs to sever his loyalty to the Empire. Crosshair goes through some serious torture and is traumatized as a result. This shatters the protective shield he had built around himself (likely since childhood). Before, the only ones he had willingly allowed in was Hunter, Tech, and Wrecker. Later Echo was included. He is still refusing to let Omega in, but this will likely change at the end of the series. He is still suffering through this experience, even though he’s rejoined his team. He’s refusing to admit his fears, the shaking of his hand is enough for Hunter and Wrecker though. They don’t seem to press this as much, but I don’t think any clone trooper knows how to deal with mental health and trauma (as they were supposed to be “immune” to the effects of battle fatigue/stress/PTSD).

He’s not the same Crosshair he was when we met him, but he’s trying to act as if he is. He has gone through being a loyal member of Clone Force 99, to feeling betrayed and abandoned by them. He becomes loyal to the Empire, until he is abandoned (on Kamino) and betrayed (by Mayday’s murder) by them.

I found it interesting that he still tried to be loyal to the Empire after they abandoned him on Kamino. He still tried to be a good soldier. He still tried to please them. It made me wonder if this is what he was like as a child. Trying to get others to like him or be pleased with him. But due to the obvious animosity between Clone Force 99 and regular clone troopers, this was likely something he’d never achieve and he had to accept that. Thus he walled up the hurt he felt and actively tried to keep others at bay with an asshole attitude.

#star wars #the clone wars #star wars the clone wars #the bad batch #tbb echo #tbb tech #tbb crosshair #tbb omega #tbb hunter #tbb #the bad batch season 1 #the bad batch season 2 #the bad batch season 3 #rambling #rambling thoughts #the bad batch spoilers #commander cody #clone trooper mayday

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marvel-starwarsfangirl · 8 months ago

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Ep. 8 "Bad Territory" Review

This episode was honestly the fluff I needed after last week's tense and crazy two parter. There was the usual action and excitement, but I loved the amount of fluff we got. Omega is forever our little ray of sunshine. I feel a bad feeling that it's going to get much darker after this week so I'll take any fluff I can get.

As always, spoilers below

It was really cool to see Fennec again and it makes senes that out of all the bounty hunters, the boys would choose to seek her out. She was originally after Omega, but she's not needlessly cruel like Cad Bane. If Omega's life were truly in danger, I don't think Fennec would want to see her get hurt. Cad Bane wouldn't give a second thought about it. Speaking of the ending, I definitely think she was talking to Ventress or someone like Quinlan. After all, Ventress is a Force-wielder and could be connected to whatever Hemlock is doing.

Overall, I really liked the interactions between her, Hunter, and Wrecker. Their banter was great and the joke about the Batch being straight up broke had me cackling. Like yes, these 5 guys with a kid are clearly enjoying Space Greece or whatever the fandom calls it. They're not gonna be looking for jobs right now. I also enjoyed seeing the boys use their skills like Wrecker's demolitions knowledge again. It's been so, so long since we've seen the boys go on a classic mission. That's not a bad thing either to have an "adventure of the week" style episode. It was cool to see them back in action (you know, non lethally).

The environment looked great, Wrecker and Hunter throwing hands with gators was pretty epic, and the final fight with the other bounty hunter (?) was exciting. I'll admit, the antagonist's design was cool and it allowed from some fun fight choreography.

Shoutout to the Phee cameo btw! Love seeing her as always. I think she'll be back after the Pabu invasion or she'll be back in time for that event to happen. Crosshair not knowing who she or Fennec was though was pretty funny. He's missed so much. (Also, this is the first time we hear him call Echo by his name fun fact).

Of course, Crosshair and Omega were the standouts because their dynamic is just that good. They're finally getting Crosshair's hand addressed! And I'm so glad Hunter stepped up to make sure it got looked at. Hunter loves Crosshair despite the past and he will look out for him. As many of us thought already, Crosshair's tremors are psychosomatic. We don't what happened on Tantiss (aside from some vague details), but whatever it was, it was bad; real bad. Crosshair is afraid of talking about it because it hurts. His reactions to even thinking about it were heartbreaking.

My theory is that Hemlock did something that broke a part of his identity. Maybe the identity erasure almost worked. Maybe he had Crosshair kill someone during a trial session to see if the reconditioning worked. Whatever it was, it traumatized Crosshair (on top of everything else he went through). For Crosshair to move forward, he's going to have to confront his trauma. He'll need to accept what happened to him and learn that it doesn't define who he is now.

Omega is so gentle and patient with him; I absolutely love it. She doesn't push him nor does she just leave him to get trapped in his mind. Instead, she tries to teach him coping mechanisms. The way he trusts her is so good too. Crosshair doesn't know what to do, but here is sister whom he loves. She's never left his side since they were imprisoned together and she was the only one who really advocated for him back in season 1. This girl loves him and he loves her. The scene where she holds his hand because it won't stop trembling genuinely means so much to me. It's such a small gesture that means so much. I really do appreciate that the writers are taking their time to show Crosshair going through the healing process. His hand doesn't get magically fixed because he escaped Tantiss nor because he redeemed himself. He achieved that. Now, he needs to finish the rest of his journey. AZI even mentions that it could be permanent. Real life mental health issues don't disappear in one night nor do they go away permanently. It comes and goes and that's what Crosshair will have to do. He'll have to cope with his trauma and hopefully the tremor will steady over time.

Many have pointed it out, but I would love to see a scene with him and Echo. Echo understands Crosshair's plight as he too was held captive and subjected to horrific experiments. I hope we get a scene between them where Echo comforts him. It would be a nice moment between two characters who often don't interact much.

Aside from that, the animation and music were great as always. That last scene of Cross and Omega meditating while Pabu's sun begins to set is truly gorgeous and it might be my favorite landscape shot of the show. It's also reminiscent of Hunter and Crosshair together on Barton IV. I am truly so happy to see Crosshair finding peace and happiness after so long. I honestly never thought we'd see him like this. But now, we do. (Side note: he looks so much smaller and vulnerable without his backpack or shoulder pads).

Anyways, I could go on and on about Crosshair. But I'll save that for another post. Can't wait for next week and hopefully we'll see Ventress!

#star wars #the bad batch #tbb spoilers #tbb crosshair #tbb hunter #tbb omega #tbb wrecker #fennec shand

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ellie-the-oracle · 7 months ago

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Star Wars: The Bad Batch - Series Finale Discussion and Thoughts

So now that the series finale is right around the corner, any thoughts, comments, feelings etc. about this final season and the show as a whole? Let's discuss! I'd love to hear your opinions.

Here are mine! Please remember that these are just my opinions and experiences with the show :) Potential spoilers below if you're not caught up!

For me, I have loved this show and have dedicated far too much time to it. Perhaps my faith in it was too high because it was in that Clone Wars style animation and I prefer animated series over live action. But to be honest, with it ending, I'm not going to lie, there is much I'm disappointed about. I honestly don't know how they're going to wrap this all up in one episode because there is far too many plot lines that are still open and unresolved. Here are just a few of my questions:

- What happened to Cid? - What will happen to Pabu? - Where is Cody? - What will go down with Wolffe? (we know he survives as we see him in Rebels, but are we going to fill in that gap) - What does the batch even want/what is their goal? - What's Omega's purpose? - What is project necromancer? (we can probably assume it has to do with the sequels...) And about Tech. I'm still very upset with what they did to him. It was a cheap death that only served to elicit a reaction from fans, and it was all in vein because they didn't find Crosshair and Omega got captured anyways. I truly thought he would come back due to the overwelminng foreshadow and his generally unfinished story, but with one episode left, I think he's truly gone; unless they pull some super tragic bs. Also, I feel like this was the worst season. Sure, I really appreciated and loved seeing Crosshair coming back, dealing with his trauma and bonding with Omega. But the story was all over the place and they had even less of a goal than they did in the first two seasons, which was a very unclear goal to begin with. The second half of this season was especially messy. They have wasted so much time on pointless stuff that could've been done in one episode. Anyways, I'd love to hear what others think and feel. And again, these are just my thoughts and opinions :D At the end of it all, I'm glad to have experienced this series, even with its flaws. I'm glad to be a part of this community. And I'm glad to have gotten the chance to love a character as much as I did and still do like Tech. Even though he is gone, he'll forever be such a special, important and impactful character to me.

#the bad batch #the bad batch season 3 #the bad batch spoilers #star wars #sw tbb #sw tbb s3 #sw tbb s3 spoilers #tbb omega #tbb tech #tbb echo #tbb crosshair #tbb wrecker #tbb hunter #series finale #discussion

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twinsunstars · 8 months ago

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Thoughts on The Bad Batch Episode 8 - Bad Territory - A Discussion Post

This episode has so much action and so much needed healing this week, it made me feel relaxed. Let's dive back into the exciting parts!

(SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE EPISODE YET! all screencaps from www.cap-that.com! https://www.cap-that.com/starwars/the-bad-batch/308/)

At the beginning, Omega is worried about Echo and Rex, relating back to the chaos that ensued at Rex's clone base and how he lost so many. Omega feels guilty for everything that's happened because the Empire is after her, since so many are getting hurt and losing their lives because of her.

Phee makes contact with the Batch, and I am so happy to see her again. She mentions Tech, which just hurt my heart. Crosshair gets to see Phee for the first time, and I hope they make some good interaction later on during the season. Phee's been trying to figure out things regarding the "M-count" situation, and so far no luck. The crew thinks of getting Fennec involved, and they decide to go with it.

Crosshair this entire episode: "Who??" Man was so lost.

Omega wants to go along, but Hunter gets strict and tells her to stay on Pabu with Crosshair. He tells her to try to get Crosshair to have someone check his hand, noticing the recurring shaking.

Hunter and Wrecker travel to a bar where they find Fennec Shand, and queen looks so fine as always. It's great to hear Ming-Na Wen's voice again. Also, the boys look so good in the purple and lime lighting, as does Fennec.

Hunter reasons with Fennec to try to get her to help them, and of course there's a price involved. Fennec gets them to help her catch a bounty she's been after, and the boys agree to help her for the information they need.

Meanwhile on Pabu, Omega easily gets Crosshair to get his hand looked at by AZ. I wonder how she managed to do so, she probably looked at Crosshair with sad eyes and pleaded with him, and he just went "Fine." AZ tries to figure out what is wrong with his hand, but he can't quite figure out a solution. Crosshair gets frustrated and walks out, and Batcher tried to follow him but got left behind. Omega's not gonna give up with him.

Fennec tells Hunter and Wrecker who she's after and takes them to a swampy planet, obtaining a boat to navigate around. Hunter finally gets to use his enhanced senses more, and Wrecker used his skills with explosives to get around the water. Fennec really called out the boys for being broke, like girl 😭

They got attacked by so many gators, everything was so hectic. This shot is crazy, but Wrecker would do this.

Crosshair keeps trying to aim with his shaking hand, getting more frustrated. Omega comes to him and suggests he try something out, and Crosshair sighs, agreeing. Batcher keeps a close eye on Crosshair and keeps him company as always, she's such a good girl.

Omega has Crosshair trying out meditation, as she mentions Gungi. Crosshair knows he missed a lot, and he definitely did with two seasons. I kinda want him to find out about Cid and he'll be like "Dang, where is she now?" He would have not tolerated her if he was with them during the past seasons.

The way Omega holds Crosshair's hand here is so soft, and Batcher is silently napping cutely. I was lowkey breathing along with Omega while she was teaching Crosshair, I really needed that healing this week. Seeing Crosshair start his healing journey makes me so happy, as I've been slowly starting my own healing journey after everything that happened last year. I resonate with Crosshair so much this season.

This shot is so beautiful and calming, I need an ambience video with this shot with them meditating for an hour or longer.

Hunter and Wrecker finish up the job with Fennec, managing to catch the bounty. They ask her for the information she promised, which Fennec reveals she does not have on her at the time. Though, she promises to keep in touch once she figures something out. She leaves the boys, making contact with someone unknown. I feel like she contacted Ventress considering her past as a bounty hunter and the Empire going after M-count targets, but who knows. We'll see next week hopefully.

We've officially hit the mid-season mark, and things are going to get hectic soon. I am nowhere prepared for anything they throw at us now.

#star wars #the bad batch #the bad batch season 3 #the bad batch spoilers #tbb #sw tbb #the bad batch crosshair #the bad batch omega #the bad batch hunter #the bad batch wrecker #the bad batch star wars #fennec shand #ming na wen

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inkstainedhandswithrings · 8 months ago

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TBB s3 ep13 THOUGHTS!!

Starting off with a sunny shot of Tantiss seems like a good omen

I probably just jinxed it huh?

Omega🥺🥺🥺

Poor baby

But they get toys

EVA TELLING OMEGA ABOUT THE DOLL

ECHOOOOOOOO

“You really think we can trust that hydrosnake?”

“I can hear you.”

Bitch is bitching about the Captains uniform like he hasn’t been wearing prison pj’s for two episodes

Oh? Omega snuck a weapon?

Smart girl

Omega is there for what? One day? Two? And she already has a plan to get them all out

The boys will finally find tantiss only for her to stand on a pile of rubble with a blaster and the other kids around her like “oh you finally made it?”

Echo stripping their armour from all colour pls this is making me so sad🥲

Like I know it’s just for infiltration but idk, their armour losing it’s individuality is feeling like a BAD omen to me

“That’s ’do your thing, sir.’”

“I don’t think so.”

Bro really just wants to get punched in the face, huh?

“Where is your captain?”

“Uh… … … captaining?”

👏👏👏👏👏

showstopping

truly

I’ve been laughing at this for 2 minutes straight

The comedic timing was *chef’s kiss*

see I knew Wrecker was gonna beat the shit out of him

Honestly Rampart is the most whiny little bitch I’ve ever seen

Like JESUS CHRIST just shut your mouth

Like he’s complaining about EVERYTHING like he has a say?

Hate to break it to you buddy, but YOU DONT

YOURE JUST PISSING PEOPLE OFF

That sequence of Echo sneaking aboard was 10/10

Fucking droid vacuum? LOVE IT

“Bout time.”

While wearing the guys hat HAHAHAHAHAH

WOW

JUST IN TIME

I was SO SURE that it would go wrong again

Honestly since Cross missed the shot I’ve been scared

I mean, I knew Omega was gonna make it out, but I wasn’t so sure about the rest of the batch

Honestly for a second there I was like “Jup, this is it. The moment we lose Echo.”

BUT THANK FUCK HE MADE IT

Yo besties, this one was a rollercoaster

I mean I had a good time but I went through a lot of emotions there phew 😮‍💨

So does this mean that Cross can kill Rampart now? Because they don’t need him anymore, right?

Also, I love that Echo is back, but again, I AM SO SAD REX ISN’T WITH HIM! Because if Rex isn’t in this episode, then he probably won’t be in the next two either. Like I was really hoping we were past the “let Rex show up in ONE (1) arc per season, somewhere mid-season” thing. Like I was hoping we were gonna actually tie him into the story so that the torch for “clone centric animation show” could be passed to him and now I’m less optimistic.

I mean, anything can happen still but… we have two episodes left and somehow we still don’t quite know what the deal is with Omega’s blood and M-count, she still needs to escape, we still don’t know who clone X is, and we somehow need to find a conclusion for the batch AND the clone rebellion that explains their absence in future storylines without being rushed and… that’s,,,, A LOT?

In conclusion, I am very confused and scared and I’d like to go home now pls (by which I mean the batch should get to go back to Pabu with ALL THE OTHER CLONES IN TBE GALAXY and have a nice little life🥺)

anyways see you next week! hahahaha🥲

#BOY was this one a rollercoaster #I don’t think I’m ready for the finale #tbb s3 #tbb hunter #tbb Echo #tbb crosshair #tbb omega #tbb wrecker #star wars #the bad batch #star wars the bad batch #tbb s3 spoilers #tbb spoilers

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heyclickadee · 1 year ago

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One part of “Aftermath” I don’t think I’ll ever get over is that Hunter, Wrecker, Echo, Tech, and Omega were on their way to get Crosshair when Crosshair walked into that hangar. The way we talk about it in the fandom is as though they left Crosshair behind in that first episode so they could rescue Omega, as though they traded him for her, but that’s. Not. What. Happened.

They go back to Kamino to grab Omega despite the risk, because they think she belongs with them, yes, but also because they’re still confident. They haven’t failed a mission yet. And —and this is important—because she said she wanted to go with them, and they take that into account.

And, of course, they immediately get captured, taken to the brig, they find Omega, Crosshair fires off about following orders—his new favorite hobby that he only picked up in the last week(1)—the guards come to take Crosshair away, and Hunter puts himself between Crosshair and the guards and says No. Absolutely not. We stay together, we’re a set, do not separate, and then—

—Crosshair gets up and leaves. And the rest of the batch probably doesn’t fully understand why.

Now, I personally think that Crosshair’s decision to leave was multifaceted. I do think the chip programming had something to do with it. It’s telling him that Hunter’s made bad call after bad call since Kaller, and that the smart thing to do would be to just comply with whatever the empire wants. He’s also deeply frustrated with the rest of his squad, though he probably doesn’t know why he suddenly disagrees with them so much. And I also think that Crosshair didn’t want anyone else in his family to get hurt. He’s got his hackles raised and he’s ready to pounce when that one guard hits Hunter in the gut; he knows that they’re going to take him one way or another, so best to do it in a way that doesn’t end with the rest of his squad getting shot. All of that is in play in Crosshair’s decision to get up and go with the guards willingly, but all the rest of the batch knows is that he does it.

It’s even possible that their initial read on Crosshair’s decision is mostly in line with the last thing I listed—that Crosshair does it to keep the rest of them from getting hurt. It’s also possible that their read on it was that Crosshair was upset. But it probably doesn’t matter. The first thing—the first thing out of Hunter’s mouth when they break out of the brig is, “We need to find out where they took Crosshair.” The only reason they go to the hangar at all is to grab their gear so they have a better chance of getting him without dying on the way. They suit up, Hunter tells Tech to get the ship ready for a speedy getaway, and no sooner does he add that the rest of them are going to get Crosshair that Crosshair walks in. When Crosshair walks in—what he sees of them, and what they see of him informs every single interaction they have through the rest of the series.

First, what they see of him. Crosshair’s chip is activated. He’s just been electroshocked into submission and had that chip’s programming ramped up to twenty. He’s not in control of his thoughts or actions, but the only two people who have any inkling that that’s the case are Tech, who’s powering up the ship and not in the room, and Omega, who is a Child and about to be shot at for the first time in her life. The rest of them have no idea. All they know is that Crosshair is standing there wearing a new set of armor, leading a new squad, with a new rank, telling them to stand down and looking oh so pleased with himself as he clarifies that that is, in fact, an order. At the time, while Crosshair is monologuing about how they need to come quietly and how Hunter can’t see the bigger picture, it must look to them like the reason Crosshair left in that earlier scene was because he wanted to leave the squad. We, the audience, know that’s not true, but the rest of the batch doesn’t, especially given what they’re seeing at the time.

And then Crosshair starts shooting. It looks to them like he’s trying to kill them, and its not just empty. As much as Crosshair surely doesn’t want to, as much as Crosshair probably hates himself for this later on when he’s more in control, he shoots Wrecker. And unlike earlier in the episode, when Wrecker got shot during the battle simulation, Wrecker isn’t able to eventually get back up and keep fighting. Wrecker’s down. It’s all Hunter and Echo can do to just drag him onto the ship, and the only reason they even manage that is because Omega manages to shoot Crosshair’s rifle out of his hand; they don’t have the manpower to subdue Crosshair and drag him on board as well, not without potentially getting themselves or Crosshair (or Wrecker) killed. They don’t leave Crosshair behind for Omega’s sake or because they got in one argument and wrote him off here. They leave him because, in that moment, it looks for all the world like Crosshair does not want to go with them, like he suddenly wants them dead or captured, and they’re just trying to get out of there alive.

And what he sees of them…gah. There’s a split second, blink-and-you-miss-it moment when Crosshair first walks in, sees them, and he looks terrified. He knows what he’s about to do, and he hates it, and he probably doesn’t know WHY he hates it, because his programming has to be screaming at him that what he’s about to do is right. Good soldiers follow orders. But the part of Crosshair that’s still himself, the part that’s still aware, still able to differentiate his own mind from the chip’s programming here in the early days after order 66, that part is yelling back that he doesn’t want to hurt them, but he can’t stop it. He doesn’t have that capacity. And that has to rip him apart here. The things he must have had to tell himself later just to cope.

But also—what he sees when he walks in? He sees the Marauder powering up. He sees everyone suiting up and grabbing their gear. He has to think—the thought has to cross his mind—that they’re leaving without him. And they’re not, they were literally on their way to rescue him, that was the next move, that was the plan, the only reason they don’t go through with it is because he walks in, starts shooting, and Wrecker almost dies, but Crosshair doesn’t know that. He wasn’t there to hear Hunter say that was the plan, no more than the rest of the batch was there so see what Nala Se and Tarkin did to him.

The worst part? None of them know about the parts they missed yet(2). Hunter, Wrecker, Echo, Tech, and Omega still don’t know what happened to Crosshair after the guards took him away. Crosshair still doesn’t know the others were coming for him. And I’m really curious about what’s going to happen if, and maybe when, they all get that context.

1. “Aftermath” takes place over at least several days, meaning Crosshair’s chip has been partially active and working its way into his thought processes the entire time.

2. I also think that part of the reason why things between Hunter and Crosshair are so broken is not because either (or neither) of them is willing to see things from the other’s point of view, but because both of them understands the other’s point of view a little too well, but in a way that lacks necessary context. Hunter probably understands that Crosshair has every reason to hate him, every reason to feel bitter and betrayed, and, honestly, Hunter probably agrees with Crosshair in that regard, and hates himself because of it. But Hunter also doesn’t know that Crosshair was never trying to kill them of his own free will and that he was therefore never bitter enough to actually want to hurt them. And Crosshair probably completely understands that Hunter has every reason to distrust him and to have completely given up hope that he might come home, and he probably hates himself for everything the chip made him do. But Crosshair doesn’t know that his family was, in fact, coming back for him and that Hunter is furious with himself for having left Crosshair behind. If they both ever had those gaps filled in they’d maybe both realize that, for all their hurt and misunderstanding, neither of them has ever hated the other. I desperately need them to sit down and talk. And then hug. And to break down weeping. Give me that catharsis I am BEGGING THIS DAMN SHOW.

#so anyway this show is murders me daily #it’s not like this is new #but it’s just an aspect of the show that kills me every time I think about it #I love the role that the characters’ limited perspectives play #not tagging this as the show because I’m not sure I want this to break confinement #but I rewatched the first episode this last weekend #in an attempt to get my roommate to join me on a watch through #(she’s never actually seen any Star Wars all the way through but she’s enjoyed the bits of this she’s seen)#and I had to yell about this again

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stars-n-spice · 9 months ago

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THOUGHTS ON S3 EP 05:

as always, spoilers under the cut and my thoughts are in no way coherent or in the order of how things happen in the episode

it's just me going to be screaming about whatever comes to mind as i type this

holy shit y'all new comfort episode just dropped!

kid you not, after seeing the episode i deadass went, "Wow, I'm so glad that episode didn't absolutely devastate me!" while I was like,, sobbing

whole episode i was either crying, screaming, or punching a pillow

can't even cry anymore, don't got no tears left

ANYWAYS

I AM AN ABSOLUTE FUCKING CLOWN FOR THINKING WE WERE GOING TO GET A PROPER REACTION/CONTINUATION FROM THE LAST EPISODE

OF FUCKING COURSE THEY WERE GOING TO SKIP OVER IT AND JUST,, FUCKING DIVE RIGHT IN. FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!

what is it with this show and having what would be emotional reactions to heavy things off screen???

fanfic writers you know what to do

anyways,,

Omega being back with Lula :( and her new outfit is so cute I love it so much :((

THEM BEING BACK ON PABU!!!! <3333 and still sleeping in their ship lol

AZI!!!!! HE'S OKAY!!! HE'S ALIVE AND HE'S THERE AND I LOVE HIM AND I MISSED HIM :((

Crosshair practicing :( and his aim just,,, getting worse :(((

CROSSHAIR AND BATCHER ARE SUCH A DUO!! I FUCKING LOVED EVERY MOMENT WITH THE TWO OF THEM,, THE LITTLE PETS AND SMILES CROSS GAVE BATCH UGGHH

will never ever ever ever get over cross and omega's dynamic,, I love them so much and I'm so glad he's back

I don't know how many times i went, "They're all back together!!" in this episode only to remember Tech isn't there and then sob violently

BUT ECHO FINALLY RETURNS - i'm kinda bitter about how he reacted to seeing Omega again because it seemed like,, like he was completely unfazed by the fact she was captured and sent to a hidden facility conducting god know what experiments BUT at the same time,, I could see it being that Echo always knew she was more than capable of escaping on her own so he wasn't too worried but STILL

"What no hug for me?" <- AAGUUHH,, and then the little smirk Crosshair gave after Echo's response,, they have no bad blood, love that

when Crosshair started talking about the facility I fucking KNEW he was talking about Barton IV and i was in so much pain,, agony even

Was NOT expecting them to return but I'm so glad they did because it played such a vital role in Crosshair's growth and returning to it and growing even more,, just,, aguughhh

WHEN HE FOUND MAYDAY'S HELMET,, FUCK FUCK FUCK minutes before that scene i was like "i swear to god if he finds something from Mayday-"

MAYDAY COME BACK YOU DIDN'T DESERVE THAT,, YOU DID SO MUCH :((

Hunter and Cross' dynamic in this was so fun to watch but also had me gnawing on my hands

could NOT get over the fact that they brought the dog with them on the mission, idk why but that's fucking hilarious to me

OMEGA CALLING CROSSHAIR "LITTLE BROTHER" AND CROSS CHUCKLING AT IT SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!

WHEN WRECKER GAVE CROSSHAIR BACK HIS ARMOR I FUCKING KNEW HE WAS THE ONE WHO KEPT IT AGUUGHHH

god I love Wrecker so much

"Omega trusts him and that's enough for me" FUCK

he wasn't super prominent in this episode but everything he did made me love him more

WHEN HE WAS DIGGING IN THE SNOW?? fucking lost it

THE HUG AT THE END???? FUCKING FINALLY???? THE WAY HE IMMEDIATELY KNEW AND HE JUST,,, FUCK,, RAN UP TO THEM????

like you can tell the whole episode Wrecker was just waiting for the two of them to work things out

i missed all of them so much

it was so good to see them all work together

GOD FUCKING AUGUUHH

THE FIGHT CROSS AND HUNTER HAD??? CROSSHAIR READING HUNTER LIKE A FUCKING BOOK??

when he started to blame Hunter for his failures?? oh fuck as an oldest child that hurt SO much and I was so scared Crosshair was going to pull a "You're the reason why Tech is dead" card

But your honor they are brothers, I love them so much

"i said talk to him, not argue with him!" - "he started it" <- crosshair you cannot beat the youngest brother allegations

hey Crosshair probably didn't tell his brothers about his shaky hands,, ahahahahahaha,aha,,ahh,,,ha..

lmao love that being in a life or death situation and saving each other from it was what made Hunter and Cross start to trust each other

this episode was so great you don't understand

and i'm so happy nothing like,, terrible happened in it

yes I cried a fuckton throughout it but,, at least Omega is still with them and at least Echo is back (for now) and at least they're slowly starting to make up and be a team again

anyways,, nice episode,, can't wait for things to just get worse from here

#tbb #tbb s3 #tbb spoilers #tbb s3 spoilers #the bad batch #bad batch #tbb hunter #tbb crosshair #tbb echo #tbb wrecker #tbb omega

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hugmekenobi · 1 year ago

Text

S2: The Bad Batch (7)

Chapter Seven: Back to the Past

Gif by @jenstar1992-2

Hunter x femaleJedi!reader

Series Summary: Some time has passed since everything that happened at Kamino and you and the Batch are trying to figure out your place in the rapidly changing Imperial galaxy. And you're having to do all this whilst figuring out where your relationship with Hunter fits into it.

Chapter Summary: Going on a mission with Phee sees you travel back to a time you had been wanting to forget and of course, trouble manages to find you.

Masterlist for S1

<Previous Chapter

Genre: Friends (idiots) to Lovers (we're in the lovers stage now)

Chapter Warnings: Canon-typical violence, swearing, my interpretation of how Nal Hutta is, brief moment of anxiety, reader having a dodgy past and being a bit shady/reckless (cause apparently I need to include flaws lol), beatings, injury descriptions (mentions of blood, stabbing, bruises, death), protective Hunter is a bit mean to Phee, hurt/comfort, fluff and feelings, light angst

Word Count: 7.3K

Author's notes: Tried to get the best of both worlds with the off show plot for this chapter so hope you enjoy! Excited to get to work on episode 8 now and thanks for all the support and patience!

“Hello, hello!”

You turned in the direction of the chipper voice and saw Phee waltz through the door.

“Phee!” Omega called out happily.

“Hey, kid!” She said with a wave before she made a beeline for you and Hunter. “How’s my favourite couple doing?”

“What do you want?” Hunter asked by way of answer.

“Straight to the point. That’s what I like about you, Bandana.” Phee charmed.

“What is it, Phee?” You asked again.

“I got word of a lead on-”

“Some sorta valuable, ancient artifact?” You and Hunter sussed.

Phee nodded. “I need some assistance following up. Was wondering if I could borrow you and Omega?”

“Yes!” Omega replied instantly but a sharp glance from Hunter told her she better hold off until she had official confirmation.

Your brow furrowed. “Why just us the two of us?”

“Typically, we do missions together.” Tech pointed out from the table you.

“Don’t worry, brown eyes. You’ll get your turn at some point.” She said.

Tech didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just focused his attention back to his datapad. He missed the smirks from his two brothers sitting across from him.

Phee now answered your question. “Figured it would be good for the kid to keep seeing new places and it’s a simple mission so little risk. And we made some progress back on Kaldar, let’s not lose that.” She left out that she wanted the time to also figure you and certain behaviours of yours out. There was something more to you that you that she needed to uncover.

“Okay.” You said hesitantly, still not fully satisfied with that answer but you sensed you weren’t going to get anything more.

Phee turned her attention back to the two of you. “What do ya say? I promise not to let either of your girls be hurt or led astray.” She told Hunter as a means to sweeten the deal.

Hunter focused his gaze on you. “If you want to go, you can go. I also have a feeling she won’t let you stay.”

Phee feigned a look of surprise.

You shrugged. “Gets me outta here for a little bit, I guess.”

“That’s the spirit.” Phee said with a roll of her eyes.

“And me? Please, Hunter?” Omega begged.

I’ll be an extra set of eyes, she’ll be alright.

Hunter sighed. He wasn’t thrilled by this by any means, but he had promised himself to give Phee a chance and you were going with them so that helped things a little. He nodded his permission.

Phee carefully observed you and Hunter. The two of you did it again. That secret, slightly above normal silent communication that seemed to go through you both with perfect understanding.

“Yes!” Omega whooped in victory before she gathered her stuff and darted towards the door.

“Where exactly are we going?” You queried.

“Nal Hutta.” Phee replied.

That made you pause but you covered it quickly. You heaved a sigh and pushed yourself up from your chair.

“Show some enthusiasm! This is going to be fun!” Phee said with a smile before she started to follow Omega out.

You made sure your armour and weapons were secure before you faced Hunter. You gave him a chaste kiss to the lips before his arms enveloped you in a hug.

“Be careful, yeah?” Hunter said as he released you.

“Hey, it’s me.” You said with an innocent grin.

“I know. That’s why I’m asking.” Hunter said, his tone light but the intent behind the words serious.

“I’ll be fine.” You said before you waved to the others and jogged to catch up with the other two.

“Nal Hutta, huh?” You repeated as you walked in the direction of her ship.

Phee cocked her head at you as she heard the slightly nervous way you spoke. “Yeah, not too rough for you, is it?”

You shot her a look. “No. There’s just… some people I’d rather not run into.”

“It’s a big place, the odds of that happening are low.”

“Tech gives much better estimations than you do.”

“Yeah, but I’m sure his sway on the more pessimistic side of things. That’s one thing you gotta learn about me, (Y/N), I like to look on the bright side.” She thumped your back. “Now, come on! We got a lead to hunt down.” She jogged to catch up with Omega.

You were yet to be convinced by that philosophy. But you’d allow her this opportunity. After all, it had been quite a few years since you’d been there. The odds had to be low… right?

Nal Hutta

“You know this place is not going to be glamorous.” You warned Omega as the ship touched down.

“How long did you live here for?” Omega asked. She’d seen the anxious look on your face the whole time the ship had been en-route and she knew that if she asked about it, you wouldn’t lie to her.

“A few months. It wasn’t my scene.” You replied briefly as you pushed up your hood and mask up as high as they could go just as the door opened.

It had not changed. The green and yellow tinge to the environment around you was just as off putting as it had been when you first smuggled yourself here.

It was hot.

It was humid.

You already felt a layer of filth settling on your exposed skin.

And the swamp rain had already started and the stench from said swamps made your nose wrinkle under your mask. You had forgotten how bad it was. You chuckled as you glanced down at Omega to see her hand over her nose. “Told ya. Just let it hit you for a few minutes and then it’ll be fine.”

Omega reluctantly lowered her hand.

“Where’s this lead, Phee?” You asked, adjusting your weapons.

“We won’t need those.” Phee said confidently. “My source is in the local watering hole.” She pointed over to the only bar in the area.

Of course, they are. You thought irritably to yourself. You almost wished your travels for this source would see you go into the swamplands because at least out there, the likelihood of running into someone who might recognise you would be minimal. Going to this bar significantly increased the risks for you.

“Did you come here?” Omega asked as the three of you headed towards the run-down bar.

You kept your sight low as the people you passed on the way over gave you all the once over. “Uh yeah, was a regular back in the day.”

“Really, here?” Phee said with surprise.

“It was a different time.” You said by way of justification.

“What brought you here in the first place?” Phee asked.

Omega glanced up at you, curious about the answer herself.

“Just had to get away.” You said airily.

“From what?” Phee pressed. “And what exactly did you do here anyway?”

The already thick air started to feel like it was settling in the back of your throat. You didn’t like that Phee kept pushing it. “It’s not really any of your business, okay?” You snapped.

Phee raised her hands and backed off. “Damn, okay. You can have your secrets.”

You took a breath. “I’m sorry I snapped. It’s just a period I don’t like to remember, that’s all.”

The rest of the walk was done in silence and when you came upon the rundown wooden door, you were filled with sudden flashbacks of meetings and drunken brawls you were set with the task of ending. You shook the memories away as you opened the door.

A low thrumming from a music box in the corner echoed over the voices and sounds of glasses clinking. You smiled fondly to yourself as Omega looked around in wonder and took in the various people and species that occupied the room. Bounty hunters, gangsters, people scraping by and more- Nal Hutta was the sorta place that attracted the people on the lower half of the scale.

Phee pointed to the bartender. “This shouldn’t take long. Take in the sights. I’ll be done soon.”

You nodded and led Omega over to one of the many dark corners of the cantina and kept a watchful eye over Phee as she talked to the bartender.

You were getting twitchy now. It looked like Phee was struggling with the bartender and each passing minute of their struggle was making your heartbeat that little bit faster.

“(Y/N)? Is that you?”

You brushed off the hand on your arm that was starting to face you. “Uh no. Sorry, you got the wrong person.” You grabbed Omega’s hand and started to move away but couldn’t stop him as he darted in front of you.

You stopped short and kept your eyes to the ground. “Sir, I’m just trying to get past.”

“Our friend is over there, and we need to join her.” Omega added, doing her best to help you.

The man swore your voice was familiar. He stooped and finally caught a glimpse of your eyes as you tried to avoid his. “It is you!”

“You have the wrong person.” You insisted before you started pushed past him.

“I don’t think so.” He acted quickly and went to pull your coverings down.

You shoved him away, but he managed to hook a finger in your mask, and it fell.

“Well, I’ll be damned, we thought you were all dead. I know someone will be pretty pleased to hear you’re not. She was really pissed off, you know.”

Fuck fuck fuck. You thought repeatedly. You ignored and shouldered past him. You were out of time; word would travel fast now.

Omega followed your hurried footsteps. “(Y/N), what’s going on?”

“I’ll explain later, Omega. We need to leave.” You replied hastily. There had been no point in pulling your mask back up, so Phee got a good look at the nervousness lingering behind your eyes as you approached her.

“Hey, you okay?” She asked.

“Do you have it?” You said instead. “We need to go. Now.”

“Well, we can’t yet. Someone is changing the terms of the deal.” Phee griped, crossing her arms in frustration.

“You want more money?” You guessed as you talked to the barkeeper.

He shrugged. “Information ain’t cheap.”

“The amount we agreed was-”

“Give her the data.” You interrupted Phee and kept your attention on him.

Phee and Omega observed you. Your manner had completely changed. You were distant and cold as you dealt with him.

The bartender guffawed and rested his arm on the bar counter. “Cute negotiation tactic but no. My price has gone up.”

You lazily rolled your eyes and within the blink of an eye, your vibroblade was pinning the lose fabric of his shirt to the wooden counter and you held his head on the counter, so he had little choice but to angle his eyes up at you.

A shocked Phee and Omega took half a step back.

“Here’s how this is going to go.” You whispered in his ear, your voice firm and intimidating. “You’re going to give her whatever it was you promised, for the original price, and you’ll get to keep your hand attached to your body. Okay?” You hoped the threat was enough, you weren’t wanting to descend back into the way you had acted here in previous times.

“No.” He grunted.

He was stubborn, you gave him that, so you tried another method. Riskier but was a way for everyone to leave unharmed. You channelled the Force and directed it towards his mind. “You will give her the information.”

“I will…” He trailed off and shook his head. “No. I won’t.”

You pushed harder and went again. “You will give her the information.”

“I will give…”

Omega deduced that his reaction was due to you using your Jedi abilities and she knew you wouldn’t be using them unless it was truly necessary, but she worried for you as she glanced at Phee. The woman was looking at you with a keen sense of interest.

You weren’t wanting to do this for a third time so you waited as you could sense his resistance was fading.

“I will give you the information.” He said finally, his voice hazy before he reached down and put the data card on the counter.

Phee picked it up and glanced between you and the barman. What the hell had she just watched?

“Pay him and let’s go.” You said emotionlessly as you sheathed your blade in your vambrace and turned to leave.

“You wanna tell me what that was?” Phee demanded as the three of you hustled out the cantina.

“What was what?” You deflected, avoiding her stare and nudging Omega in front of you.

“Nuh uh.” Phee grabbed the top of your arm. “You can’t just insist we leave, get the information from a man who was adamant about not revealing it, and then run out without saying how you did it and why we suddenly need to go.”

“Phee, you got the information you wanted. I don’t see what the big deal is. We need go.” You implored as you turned around to face her.

Any protest Phee was going to offer died on her lips as she caught sight of the crowd of people approaching.

“But we haven’t had the group reunion yet.” A sing song voice laced with venom called over to you.

You closed your eyes in despair and slowly turned on your heels to face the crew you had really wanted to avoid. The two Gamorreans were new but the two Trandoshans, three Twileks were from your time. Your eyes however focused in on the leader. She looked the same as she had when you’d left. Slim odds my ass. You thought to yourself. You stepped forward slightly, so Omega and Phee were more behind you.

“Hello, Vaya.” You said coolly.

“It’s been a long time, Two Knife.”

“I meant to come visit.” You lied, no warmth behind your words.

“Two Knife?” Omega repeated as she looked to you, but you didn’t turn to meet her eyes.

You cringed as you heard your old nickname leave the young girl’s mouth.

“For the two vibroblades she used when she was part of us. No blasters, only ever those knifes. I think she liked killing up close and personal.” Vaya taunted cruelly. “Though it looks like you traded one of them in. What happened? Grow a conscience in your time away?”

“Shut the fuck up.” You snarled.

Vaya sneered. “Oh, what’s the matter, (Y/N)? You didn’t tell your new…” She looked to your companions and gave a mocking laugh as she saw the child. “ ‘crew’ about your old friends?”

“Take it these were the people you were hoping to avoid?” Phee worked out as she saw the icy stares the two of you were giving each other.

“Friends is a generous term.” You said but you didn’t want her to keep talking. You didn’t want Omega knowing exactly what you had been a part of here. At least not from her. It had all been an act built from repressed anger, disappointment, and misery, but you were ashamed of what you’d become in your time here.

Vaya pretended to look wounded. “After all we achieved in this shithole. You want to forget it so eagerly? Then again, that would make sense. You stole from us and ran pretty quickly.”

“Yeah, well, finding out you were giving a cut of what we stole to the Separatists during the war wasn’t what I signed up for.”

“So, I take it you haven’t come to pay it back?” Vaya said with a glare.

You couldn’t help the laugh that left your mouth. “Nope. I am dead broke and, as hard as it might be for you to believe, I did not come here for you.”

Vaya’s lip curled into a nasty grin. “Then it’s just my lucky day.” With that, she clicked her fingers and her subordinates straightened up and cracked various bones in their body.

Omega, you, and Phee get back to the ship. I’ll meet you there.

“No, we’re not leaving you.” Omega hissed as she kept her bow activated.

Phee glanced down and the young girl and then to you. There it was again. That level of communication that was something more than just good team chemistry. She was sure you hadn’t spoken yet Omega seemed to know exactly what you had said. Plus, there was still that incident in the bar that she needed to follow up on. What were you?

You didn’t take your eyes of the group in front of you. Trust me. Please. “All this because of a little money I stole from you years ago? Can’t we just let bygones be bygones and no one gets hurt?” You reasoned with Vaya whilst Omega tugged on Phee’s arm and turned to go in the direction of the ship.

“You know our law here.” Was Vaya’s steely reply.

Yeah, you did, and it had been why you’d avoided this place like the plague after you’d left. Money was all anyone here cared about and they didn’t care who they hurt to get it. And… you’d been a key part in that for a while.

Phee hesitantly moved backwards. “(Y/N), you sure-”

“Get outta here.” You ordered firmly.

Phee didn’t like it, but you seemed determined and the last thing she wanted was Omega getting caught in any crossfire. She left you behind and ran back to the ship with Omega.

“After them.” Vaya signalled to the two Gamorreans.

Two quick stun shots from your blaster halted any movements from the two as they dropped to the ground. “You deal with me, or the next round leaves a more permanent outcome.” You said with a hard stare.

Vaya merely shrugged. “Fine by me. So long as the result is you dead in the ground.”

“Still got that lovely street demeanour.” You mumbled. “Same rules I take it?” You asked, already unholstering your blaster and tossing your vibroblade a safe distance away.

“It’s like you’ve never been away.” Vaya jeered before she took a step back and allowed her crew to advance towards you.

“Fucking hell.” You wheezed as you shoved the dead Trandoshan off your chest. His body flopped to the ground with his neck sticking out at an awkward angle. You didn’t want to kill him but when you found yourself on your back with his clawed hands squeezing your throat, you were left with little choice.

You hunched on all fours as you worked your way up to stand but you didn’t get very far. A hard kick was sent to your ribs, followed swiftly by one to your stomach. You rolled across the ground and retched before you were allowed to get to your feet. You swayed and pointlessly wiped away the blood running from your nose as you faced the two twileks and the lone trandoshan. One companion dead, the other unconscious on the ground.

As the two twileks stalked towards you, you called on the Force to give you that extra bit of strength you found yourself needing. “Four down, four to go.” You said to yourself before you raised your arms and let them come to you.

The two twilelks- one red skinned, one blue- started their attack first. They came at you from either side. You remembered these two and from what you recalled, they weren’t the brightest of the bunch and you only hoped that would remain true. As the red one made to strike you, but you ducked and instead his fist crunched into the nose of the second one who yelped in pain.

You kicked the red twilek in the groin which sent him crumbling to the ground and whipped round to face his friend. He was still nursing his hurt nose, so you easily dodged the aimless and distracted swing of his arm. One well-placed and strong hit of your elbow to his temple followed by a harsh punch to the underside of his jaw had him collapsing to the ground but it was after this you got yourself into a bit of trouble. You were sluggish and didn’t turn around quickly enough to stop the second twilek from grabbing the back of your neck.

The remaining red-skinned twilek hit the back of your knee and kept doing so when you didn’t immediately go down. Once you finally succumbed, he pinned your arms behind your back and the trandoshan got to work on punching your face.

It was a struggle to stay conscious as the assault continued and so you acted swiftly. When the next hit came, you tipped to the side and the punch wound up in the gut of your captor you let your hands go on instinct as he doubled over.

You forced yourself to stand up quickly and you faced your two foes once more. All of you were breathing heavily.

“Any chance you guys want to call it a day?” You tried, your jaw aching with the effort and the metallic taste of blood was filling your mouth and the back of your throat. You spat it out.

The answering growl and ‘fuck you’ gave you your answer.

“Alrighty then.” You sighed. Your best bet here was to use their weaknesses against them. Both were eager to be the one to deliver the final hit and that meant they were unfocused. You ducked, weaved, and parried their strikes for now. It was almost like you were dancing in a pattern to get them closer to each other whilst they were aiming for you.

One misplaced kick from the twilek combined with a perfectly timed dodge from you meant that the trandoshan got clipped in the thigh which caused his step to fumble as he got ready to set himself once more and that was your moment. You dashed round the back of the twilek and twisted his arm behind his back and used him as a shield when the trandoshan barley looked up and threw a powerful punch but rather than you sinking to the ground, it was his teammate.

You tutted and shook your head as you released the unconscious body. “Didn’t anybody teach you that you’re not supposed to punch out your own gang member?”

“I forgot how much shit came out of your mouth.” The trandoshan hissed.

You shrugged. “Keeps things entertaining.” With that you and the trandoshan went at it once more.

The two of you had been going at it for much longer that you would’ve liked.

You were able to punch his cheekbone but, at the same time, he sent a strong kick to the centre of your chest sent you sprawling on your back. You released a winded cough and as he stepped towards you, you swept your leg out and took his out from under him. He fell to the ground, and you took your chance. You groaned with the effort it took for you to climb across his chest, but you managed it. His fist skimmed across your jaw since you moved it away in the nick of time, so the resulting impact of the punch was lost. You lifted his head and smacked the back of it off the ground a few times before he too was left unconscious. You moved off him when you were sure he wasn’t going to come back around.

You were only allowed a moment of respite since you still had one more person to deal with. You braced a hand on your knee and heaved a few deep breaths. You spat some more blood out your mouth, stood and beckoned Vaya to come towards you.

Vaya snarled and ran at you, knife in hand.

You dodged the quick jabs of her knife, but you were sore and exhausted, your movements had grown slower. You didn’t quite manage to avoid the next swift, well-placed stab of her knife. It sliced through your side. You swallowed your shout of agony and stumbled backwards. You ignored the pain and sensation of warm blood dripping down your body. It would give Vaya too much power if she saw how badly she’d wounded you.

Vaya smirked. She hadn’t missed the way your face had contorted as she made contact with you. She studied her blade which was now dotted with your blood. “You’re getting sloppy.”

“You always were a cheat.” You said through laboured breaths.

“Give up now, and I promise I’ll make the rest of it quick.”

“Nah, this was all to give you a fair shot.” You taunted.

Vaya snarled and stalked towards you once more.

You studied her and when you saw the glance she sent towards your shoulder, and you grabbed her wrist and bent it back, so she was forced to drop the knife.

You caught the movement of her other fist that was aiming for your mouth. You blocked it and managed a punch of your own that met her cheekbone. You then landed a kick to her stomach which sent her reeling back.

She was pissed and, unlike you, had all her energy. You knew the longer this went on, the less likely it was that you would be the one walking away. You needed to get under her skin and make her lose focus, so you smirked as you saw the welt that was already swelling beneath her skin. “Knife strike followed by a punch to the mouth. It’s still the same but then again, you never were all that creative.”

Vaya cried out in frustration and charged towards you.

You knew what she was going to do. You let her tackle your waist and ignored the wave of agony it sent through your body as she repeatedly hit your open wound. You pushed the black spots encroaching on your vision away and kept your feet. You kneed her in the ribs which caused her to loosen her grip for a moment. You did it again and again until she let go and regrouped.

Vaya saw the weary and pained expression behind your eyes. Your heart wasn’t in this, and she could use that. She caught her breath back and ran at you again.

This time though, you couldn’t fight the pain it caused you and you weren’t able to stay standing. The two of you crashed to the ground. You felt her reaching out to the side and when you turned your head, you saw why- her knife was within her grasp. You made the rather unwise decision to headbutt her, an act that saw stars exploding behind your eyes due to the pain it caused your already injured face. It only dissuaded her for a second. You choked out a pained grunt as she placed her knee on your chest- limiting your movements- and managed to get her weapon back.

Vaya straddled your chest and brought the knife down towards you.

You blocked her descent with your forearm, but she continued to press down, and the sharp point of the knife was edging closer to your throat. You let the Force flow through you and found whatever reserves were left within you and pushed back- hard- and used your other hand to lift her elbow to the side. You could tell by the way the knife was moving away from you and the sheer frustration in her face that you were going to get out of this. You managed to get her half off you but the momentum you had caused meant you rolled too, and she kept it going.

The two of your struggled on the ground, the knife getting lost between you both and it was then you heard the sound of metal meeting flesh.

You weren’t sure how it happened, and you wished you had found a way to stop it.

You watched the fearful realisation in her eyes, and you glanced down. You pushed off her you and she fell to the side. You gingerly sat up and recoiled in horror as you saw her knife embedded in her own chest. “Vaya, I-”

“You always- always were the stronger one.” Vaya rasped.

You bowed your head. You didn’t want it to go like this. “I’m sorry.”

A pained laugh rattled from Vaya’s mouth. “You’ll- you’ll understand if I don’t feel like forgiving you right now.”

You released a low, sad laugh. “Can I help?”

“No, I’m-” Vaya coughed, and a trickle of blood left the corner of her mouth. “I’m done.”

You watched as the light left her eyes and her chest stopped moving. “I’m sorry.” You whispered sincerely before you gently lowered her eyelids. You had never wanted this.

You stood up and made to take a step but instantly felt your knees buckle as your beaten body finally let itself be feel all the aches and pains you were experiencing. You slouched to the ground. You finally pressed a hand into your side and hissed in discomfort. You lifted your shirt and examined the wound. It wasn’t as deep as you’d feared but it was no small cut either. You definitely needed medical attention. You released a shaky breath as you got to your feet. Your knee burned under your full weight so you had to accommodate your step accordingly as you weaved your way through the bodies, picked up your abandoned weapons and made your way back to the ship as quickly as your body would allow.

Phee and Omega took in your battered and bruised face as you limped towards them. You were clutching your side and there was a blood trail behind you.

“(Y/N)!” Omega cried anxiously as she and Phee ran towards you.

“I thought you had a handle on things?” Phee said as she reached for you.

You waved them both off and grimaced. “I did. Just-” You readjusted your stance and groaned in pain. “Just get- get back to Ord Mantell.” You kept one gloved hand on your side as you all boarded the ship.

You winced as you sat down and took the cloth from Omega and put it over your nose to stem the blood flow.

“Hunter is going to kill me.” Phee mumbled as she turned her worried gaze from you and got the ship in the air.

As Omega started to take off your armour and anxiously watched the way your eyes flickered, she wasn’t confident enough to tell her that he wouldn’t.

“AZ, we need you!” Omega shouted urgently as the three of you entered the parlour.

AZ dropped the tray of dirty glasses in his hand and whirred towards Cid’s room. “Bring her back here.”

The rest of the Batch jumped to their feet as they saw you slouched against Phee.

“What happened?!” Echo asked as he and his brothers hustled over to you.

Your only reply was a pained grunt.

“We ran into some lowlifes.” Phee explained for you as she strengthened her grip on you since she felt you lean into her more.

“Where’s Hunter?” Omega asked quickly.

“He’s out with Cid.” Tech replied, already halfway to the exit.

“Don’t-” You sucked air through your teeth in discomfort as Echo and Wrecker took over from Phee in supporting you. “Don’t bother him. Give me 20 minutes and I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening.” Wrecker disagreed. “You know what he’d do to us if we didn’t tell him this?”

“I’ve been imagining a few scenarios.” Phee piped up.

“I’m going to be fine.” You protested through gritted teeth. You didn’t want to worry Hunter with something that in the grand scheme of things, wasn’t a big deal and would be sorted pretty quickly.

“I do not suggest we test the idea.” Tech advised before he slipped away as Echo and Wrecker began to lead you into the back room where AZ was setting up.

“What are you after, Goggles?” Cid asked roughly as she saw Tech sprint towards them.

Tech ignored her.

Hunter took in the look on his brother’s face and his muscles tensed. It was a rare sight to see Tech looking troubled. “What’s wrong, Tech?”

Tech caught his breath back. “It’s (Y/N), she’s hurt. She-”

Hunter didn’t wait to be told the rest. He just started running.

“Hunter, hold on. Don’t-”

The warning calls from all his brothers didn’t stop him. He made a beeline for Phee.

Phee saw both the fury and panic on Hunter’s face and that was a dangerous combination. She dashed around to the safety of the bar counter. “Hey hey hey. Let’s just talk.” She said but she couldn’t quite keep the fear at bay, so it came out her mouth very quickly.

Omega had paused for a moment to watch but she knew she’d be better off helping AZ treat you, so she left the main parlour.

Wrecker acted quickly and braced his hand on Hunter’s shoulder. He knew his brother wasn’t going to physically hurt Phee- it wasn’t his nature- but he couldn’t guarantee the words he would say would carry the same considerations.

“What. Happened. Out. There?” He spat angrily at her as he shoved Wrecker’s hand off him. He stopped his advance, however.

“Everything started off fine. We just-”

“Clearly it wasn’t. You told me they would be alright!” He couldn’t stop his voice from growing louder. He was too wound up and upset to think straight right now.

“We were. It was only at the end where-”

“I don’t care when it was! You said nothing was going to happen!”

“I-”

“I know you like to lie about your various adventures, but I didn’t think you would lie about ensuring the safety of my squad!”

“If you would just-”

“Guess you really are a pirate.”

“Look, I didn’t think anything would go wrong! I can’t control what she does! She has her own mind you know!”

That made Hunter pause. “What are you talking about?” He took a deep breath and relaxed his stance a bit.

“Oh, you’re letting me get a word in now?” Phee retorted.

“Don’t.” Hunter warned. “Just tell me what you mean.”

Phee sighed. “Look, overall things were fine. It was just at the end. She got all jittery about needing to leave so we did but then we ran into some people that she insisted she deal with herself. I wanted to help but the kid was there, and (Y/N) told us to go. And technically, she did handle them. She got away, didn’t she? She’s right here. It’s not my fault she felt the need to take on a whole gang of people by herself.”

“You-”

“Hunter, instead of focusing your attention on Phee, why don’t you go check on (Y/N)?” Tech interjected.

Phee shot him a look of gratitude.

Hunter’s jaw clenched before he gave Phee one last glare and hustled through to the back room.

He practically crashed through the door when a big enough gap opened and you hastily covered the wound on your side that AZ was beginning to tend to. You started to sit up. “I told them not to bother you.”

“I am not yet finished with my examination.” AZ said, indicating that you should lie back down.

“What happened?” Hunter asked, his voice tight as he struggled to keep the distress at seeing your bruised face. Your lip had split and there was a cut along the bridge of your nose. Not to mention the purple and blue welts that were scattered across your face, particularly your cheek, eye, and jaw.

“You should see the other guys.” You joked before you winced as AZ started to work on your stab wound.

“Believe me, I wish I could.” Hunter said with protective rage.

“I’m okay, Hunter.” You comforted as you patted the side of the bed in invitation.

“Are you okay?” He asked to Omega first.

Omega nodded as she cleaned the spots of blood from your face and took off you gloves to clean the scratches on your knuckles before applied the bacta to the various bruises on your face. “Not even a scratch. It was an interesting mission until it went a bit wrong.”

Hunter hung his head in relief before he took your hand and came to sit by the bed. “How’s it going, AZ?”

“The bruises on her face and ribs will heal quickly. Her knee will take longer but the treatment is the same- some bacta and rest. This wound on her side, however, is more concerning.”

“AZ, I thought we said not to mention the injury there.” You grumbled.

“Yes, AZ, what’s concerning about the injury on her side?” Hunter said, shooting you a look.

“The knife wound isn’t deep, closing it up will be a simple process, but the blade that inflicted it was unclean and there is subsequent dirt from whatever happened after the original wound occurred. I am worried about infection.”

“See, a ‘simple process’.” You said with a small smile.

“The ‘worried about infection’ part just didn’t reach your ears?” Hunter chastised.

“I’m choosing to not think about it. And looking out for your health. You know, you should be avoiding unnecessary stress.” You said breezily.

“Forget about my non-existent blood pressure issue. You were stabbed!” Hunter said, hanging his head in utter exasperation.

“Lightly.” You corrected with a slight smile.

Hunter breathed deeply. He wasn’t prepared to be calm about this yet.

You felt the distress that rippled through him. “Hunter, I promise I’m feeling much better.” You brought his hand to your chest and let him feel your heartbeat. “See? I’m right here.”

Slowly but surely and with each strong beat of your heart, Hunter started to feel himself relax. “Do you have enough supplies to clean it, AZ?”

“I do. The process will just carry a degree of discomfort.”

“Feel free to squeeze.” Hunter said softly as he kissed the back of your hand as he held it.

You gave him a grateful smile before you signalled for AZ to start.

“I have finished my treatment.” AZ declared.

“Thank you.” You said as the droid left the room. You sat up. Your still body ached but you figured that would be the norm for the next few hours at least. You accepted Hunter’s help to stand and practically fell into his arms as he didn’t give you much time to get oriented before he wrapped them around you.

“You know the idea of letting me just walk in and find you like this with no warning was a sure way to put me through unnecessary stress?” Hunter murmured into the top of your head.

“I know.” You admitted. “At the time, I thought it was the better route to go down.”

A beat of silence passed before Hunter spoke again. “I need you to be more careful, okay? We can joke all we like but when Tech said you were hurt…”

You pulled your head back to look at him.

“I can’t lose you.” He murmured as he brushed the backs of his fingers tenderly across your bruised face.

“You won’t.” You reassured him, your voice gentle.

“I could have. On more than one occasion and it’s not something I ever find myself prepared for.”

“Hunter…”

“I know the risks of what we do. I account for everything, or at least I try to, but the one thing that I always struggle to plan for is losing anyone here, especially you. If I-” He stopped before he tried again. “If I lost you, I think a part of me would die with you.”

You cupped his face and looked deep into his brown eyes. “Good thing that’s not going to happen.”

He swallowed thickly. He knew you both knew there were no guarantees in this galaxy but hearing you say it helped, nonetheless.

“It won’t.” You affirmed again. You wouldn’t let it. He and this squad were a source of light for you in the ever-growing darkness of this galaxy and if you didn’t have that, you dreaded to even think about what you would do. “I’ll stop being reckless and you avoid heights.” You said with a smile.

Hunter laughed. “Sounds like a decent plan.” He hugged you again.

“How much did you lay into Phee?” You asked with a knowing smile as you adjusted your head to glance at him.

“I was probably a bit harsh.” Hunter admitted on reflection.

“She told you I told them I’d handle it, right? She was actually following an order.”

“Yes.” Hunter grunted in displeasure. “When you’re 100% I’m going to come back and lecture you about that.”

You snorted out a laugh. “Come on, Sergeant. We got some apologies to make.”

As you hobbled into the main parlour with Hunter providing a helping hand, Phee dashed to hide behind Wrecker.

“What did you do?” You admonished with a playful punch to his arm.

Hunter winced at Phee’s reaction. “I’m sorry, Phee.” He said genuinely.

Phee peeked out from behind Wrecker. “Oh yeah?”

“Yes. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. I was scared and I took it out on you when I shouldn’t have.”

Phee fully emerged. She could tell he meant what he was saying but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a bit of fun first. “So, you’re sorry you yelled?”

“Yes.” Hunter nodded.

“And you’re sorry for not letting me get a chance to explain first?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re sorry you blamed me?”

“Yes.” He said again, not liking the direction Phee was taking this but he had it coming.

“And you’re sorry for implying that I would deliberately endanger your team?”

“Yes.” He squirmed.

“And you’re sorry for calling me a liar and a pirate?”

“Hunter.” You scolded.

“You were injured!” Hunter said awkwardly. He really had been an ass. “I didn’t know how badly; I just knew you were hurt and reacted with a bit more emotion that I should have. I’m sorry.” He said again.

Phee nodded appreciatively. “We’re cool, Bandana. You were worried for your girl, I get it. Just next time, take a moment before you jump down someone’s throat.”

Hunter dipped his head in acknowledgement.

“And Phee, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry too. I was careless and didn’t fully think about how a rather protective someone would react. I’m sorry for getting you into trouble.” You said earnestly.

“Don’t sweat it.” Phee said with a wave of her hand. “I just hope you left those other guys in a worst state cause you really don’t look too hot right now. Now, if you all would excuse me, I got some treasure to find.” She had decided to wait you out a bit longer, it wouldn’t be fair to try to figure out what your deal was with your current condition being what it was.

“Let us know what you find!” Omega called after her.

Phee grinned before she made her way out the parlour.

“Do the other guys look worse?” Wrecker asked.

“They will have to be in considerably worse shape if you look better.” Tech said simply, only realising how it sounded when all heads gave him the same pointed look.

You merely laughed. “Yes, Tech, they looked considerably worse. Some more than others.” You said to yourself quietly, regretfully.

“Alright!” Wrecker celebrated as he gave you a high five.

“Can you fill us in on what happened?” Echo asked.

“I did bring it on myself, it was from a time before I met you all. Believe or not, some secrets of my past before you all still remain. And this time, Omega isn’t going to reveal them.” You kidded as you all sat down, but you were nervous. You weren’t sure of the reaction you’d get. It was a dark, shameful part of your past where you’d just left the Order and had started doubting everything you’d thought you’d known and through that, you’d lost yourself for a while. “It was pretty soon after I left the Order…”

Next Chapter>

Tagging: @noeasyisnoisy, @fuckoffthanos, @tpwkcalli, @arctrooper69, @graciexmarvel, @flyingkangaroo, @nightmonkeysstuff, @brujaporfavor, @sunkissedclones, @ladytano420, @keep-calm-and-drink-caf, @yyourmotherr, @xxeiraxx, @starwarsnerd111

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amorfista · 1 year ago

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I have some news to share ^^

A few days ago I had a revelation while at work.

For over 8 years I've been a big fan of the Dark Souls franchise. The first Dark Souls felt to me like a journey; a full-on immersion into an incredibly complex world, marked by disparity: old royalty, splendor, trust, hope, magic, nostalgia, wonder, gold, light... but also decay, dread, betrayal, horrors, darkness, death, monsters, disease, anguish. This game left a deep print on me that hasn't faded. Ever since I played it, fantasy changed in my eyes. Dark Souls I, II and III became a standard, a reference point. Even when I didn't draw as much as I do now, I aspired to one day pay good tribute to the games that meant so much to me! And, of course, I created fan art, but I always felt like I could have given more.

Now. As you probably know I'm also a big Star Wars fan, specifically TCW fan. And a few months ago I watched The Bad Batch for the first time. This show left a print in a very similar way as Dark Souls had before. It fueled my inspiration significantly, motivated me and, most importantly, helped me form friendships that I'm incredibly grateful for ♥. So... the other day, while I listened to some Dark Souls music at work, I thought...

Why not combine my favorite show with my favorite videogame franchise?

So that's it guys. May I present to you:

-The Bad Batch: Dark Souls AU-

That's it! That's my brilliant idea! XD This is going to be a project, a BIG one. So I would like to briefly (i promise i tried) explain how it will affect my content, under the cut: (I'll also drop some older DS artwork at the bottom!)

TLDR: From now on I will focus on TBB DS AU as my main and basically sole project . Even if you didn't play DS, that's okay! I will make it people-who-didn't-play friendly, to ensure everyone enjoys the journey. However, if this isn't for you, it's okay to unfollow <3 -I would say that, since I came to tumblr this early summer, my "signature" drawings are the TBB beach episode ones. I have WIPs for this project but I've been feeling stuck for far too long, so I am going to put it on hold. In fact, I am going to put on hold virtually everything that I was planning on doing, with a few exceptions. This means that I will rarely draw anything outside this AU.

-I am CLOSING commissions. I found that they put a kind of pressure on me that doesn't feel too good, and, honestly, I'm lucky to say that I do not need the money at the moment. I'm still open to requests, though, so don't hesitate to send anything and I'll draw it if I feel like it :) I'll even try to set up a store at some point!

-The project will consist on three journeys, featuring the 6 members of the Bad Batch, and corresponding with the three Dark Souls games. Each of those journeys will, more or less faithfully, follow the events of EACH season of TBB, adapted of course to the universe of Dark Souls, AKA Dark Medieval Fantasy. This means that, until the third season of TBB is released, I won't make any DSIII-related drawings.

-The journeys are adapted to the universe, and thus, will follow the real player journey as faithfully as I can, staying within DS canon and allowing people who have played the games to enjoy my drawings. However,

-THE DRAWINGS WILL BE 100% NON-DS-PLAYER FRIENDLY. I know that my followers are not DS fans but TBB/TCW fans. I am NOT here just to please DS fans. I want TBB fans to enjoy this journey, without having to google meanings or go easter-egg hunt to understand what is happening. I will tell a story and you will only have to enjoy it.

-This is a project for myself. Both DS and TBB mean A LOT to me, and this idea had me vibrating with excitement. I am making this project to PAY TRIBUTE to two things I love. However that does not mean that I will neglect the very people who have motivated me to keep creating. I promise to still deliver my very best with every drawing.

Do not hesitate to unfollow if this isn't for you.

I can understand that some people might follow me only for my wholesome beach episode drawings or for regular, HC TBB content. And that's okay. That's what this announcement is for! To let you know. This community has given me so much and I want to give back. And if you do stay, I can almost 100% assure you that you will enjoy what's to come!! <3 It will be a long but satisfactory journey. I'LL BE POSTING THE FIRST DRAWINGS IN THE UPCOMING DAYS!

OKAY, SORRY FOR THE WALL OF TEXT!!! 😖 Here are some older DS drawings ^^ (jesus I have way more than I thought and these aren't even all of them)

AIGHT. NOW YOU KNOW IT'S SOME SERIOUS SHIT WHEN I SAY I LIKE THESE GAMES.

Anyway. Including a taglist, because I think it would be unfair not to let you guys know about this project in case anyone wants out (or to not be tagged). Send me a DM if that's the case, it's NO PROBLEM!!! I wouldn't want to tag someone who doesn't want this content.

ALSO PLEASE, ANY QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE, TOSS THEM TO ME! And thank you kindly for making it this far <3

@dukeoftheblackstar @justalittletomato @darthmaulshispanichousewife @botherbother-blog @aftergloom @badolmen @ihaventpickedausername @ohboi @stardustbee @nik-barinova @the-chains-are-the-easy-part @gen-has-green-vibes @ejfivercommander @herbalinz-of-yesteryear @eyecandyeoz @noesqape @lune-de-miel-au-paradis @staycalmandhugaclone @callmesunny04 @freesia-writes @ginnymilling @sunshinesdaydream @sev-on-kamino @cloneloverrrrr @moon-wrecked @idontgetanysleep @tech-aficionado @followthepurrgil @renton6echo @queen-jiru @shoe-bag @eyayah123 @eloquentmoon @and-loth-cat @ladyzirkonia @stardusthuntress @bambambunny @morphofan @gt13tbbart @amalthiaph @cameronirat @nobody-expects-the-inquisitorius @anxiouspineapple99

#the bad batch #dark souls #TBB DS AU

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photogirl894 · 10 months ago

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"Sun and Rain Part 2: Age of the Empire"

Chapter 28

"Fear and Understanding"

A "Bad Batch" fanfic!

Pairing: Hunter x fem OC, Echo (more best friend pairing)

A/N: I am on a roll, you guys! 😆 No joke, I spent, like, most of the day writing this chapter yesterday, which felt amazing! That hasn't happened in so long! I left y'all on a pretty hefty cliffhanger last time, but you don't have to wait long to keep going 😁We'll finally be getting through the rest of episode 7 of "Bad Batch!" Have fun with this one!!

Taglist: @the-sad-batch , @nimata-beroya , @intrepidmare , @cole-kenxbi , @tech-aficionado , @ladykatakuri , @d1n0-dan , @sammi9498 , @darthzero22 , @scarlettrose9901 , @thebadbatchscyare , @chxpsi , @ilikemymendarkandfictional , @4pplecider , @locitapurplepink , @l-lend , @nekotaetae , @eternalwaffle , @merkitty49 , @avathebestx , @idoubleswearimawriter , @techs-stitches , @fantasyproductions

《 Chapter 27

》 Chapter 29

All chapters (Part 2) (Part 1)

Explanation: With Wrecker's chip activated and all their safety as well as a friend's life in jeopardy, the Bad Batch must subdue him quickly before his mind is lost forever.

The floor was cold.

Her whole body was numb, weak and throbbing with sharp pain simultaneously.

Her head hurt and she couldn’t move.

She could feel her consciousness slipping and the world around her was blurring.

A few feet away from her, she could still see Wrecker donning his helmet and grabbing his blaster rifle, getting ready to attack the others. The chip had taken a hold of him and there was nothing she could do now to stop him. She’d tried and thought the love they shared would be enough to help him break free, but the chip’s influence on his brain was more powerful than she’d imagined and it was what got her into the predicament she was in right now.

She had lost.

As she felt her will to stay awake and her body weakening, she could only hope that he wouldn’t hurt anyone else and that her friends would be able to subdue him and get the chip out of his head. It was up to them to save him before it was too late and he was lost forever.

“It’s okay, big guy,” Rina thought, her vision going hazy. “I know…it wasn’t you.”

A long breath escaped her, her strength disappeared and she gave up the fight, everything around her fading into nothingness.

In a matter of seconds, Wrecker went from being himself in pain to going on a complete rampage.

When Rex tried to grab his blaster to stun him, Wrecker had knocked the blaster away and sent it through the wall. He was now a man on a mission…a mission to eliminate all of them.

Kimber whipped around to get Omega, but Hunter had already grabbed her in his arms, which made her glad that he was two steps ahead of her. There was a toppled table right behind them that the Clones, Kimber and Kida all managed to duck behind as Wrecker started firing at them.

“He’ll destroy the equipment if we don’t get him out of here,” Echo warned them as they kept low behind the table to avoid the blasterfire.

“What are we going to do? We need to get Tech…and Rina!” Kida cried, tears running down her face.

“You’re all traitors!” Wrecker yelled behind them.

Another shot hit the edge of the table and everyone ducked down to avoid the sparks that were flying. They had to do something and fast or else they would be sitting ducks in that room.

Then Hunter stated, “We’ll draw him out. Omega, stay with Tech. Kida, you get Rina.”

After he gave his orders, Hunter grabbed a gas tank from the pile of tanks in front of them, stood up and hurled it at Wrecker to distract him. One of Wrecker’s blaster shots hit the tank, causing it to burst open and foggy white gas expelled out of it. Wrecker turned away, coughing as the gas got into his helmet, and that gave the others just enough cover for Hunter, Kimber, Rex and Echo to dart out of the room and back into the dark corridors of the Venator. Other than Rex, the rest of them had left their weapons in the med room and there had been no time to retrieve them, so they were going to have to improvise a way to overpower Wrecker enough to get him back on the surgical table. Lucky for them, there were more gas tanks like the ones in the med room spread about the hallway, so they could use those if they needed to. They each ducked either around a corner or behind a wall, waiting for Wrecker to follow them. A few shots rang through the hall, which showed them Wrecker was coming.

Kimber pressed back up against a wall across from Rex, her heart pounding like mad in her chest. Even though she knew Wrecker was a sweet, gentle and loveable giant, he was absolutely terrifying in that moment. She wasn’t afraid of him, but more of what he’d be capable of doing in his current state. His mind was set on terminating them for being in violation of Order 66 thanks to the chip. Because of that, he’d already taken Tech out of commission…and she feared the worst when it came to Rina. If an awful fate had just befallen her, Kimber would be heartbroken.

More than that, Wrecker would be completely devastated.

They heard him coming around the corner and Rex was the first to advance. He jumped out from behind his cover and fired a stunning blast at Wrecker, but unfortunately missed. Wrecker then started firing a barrage of shots at Rex, making him duck back behind the wall, until Hunter emerged and threw his knife at Wrecker’s blaster rifle. The vibroblade hit the rifle out of Wrecker’s hands and sent it clattering to the floor. Then Kimber dashed out from her spot, jumped into a tuck and roll across the floor and grabbed a large, flat piece of metal on the ground as she rolled to her knees. Then she twisted her torso and, as she pushed herself up to her feet, threw the metal like a disc towards Wrecker, hitting him right in the center of his helmet and sending him staggering backwards a couple steps.

“Wrecker, please, wake up!” she begged.

Right after that, Echo attempted to come up behind Wrecker and hit him over the head with a gas tank, but Wrecker heard him coming and blocked Echo’s blow with his hand. Then, quicker than any of them expected, his hand grabbed Echo by the face and Wrecker threw him right by Kimber and towards Rex, who had come out from behind the wall again. Unfortunately, Rex had fired another stun blast just as Echo came flying at him, so it hit Echo instead and his unconscious body slammed right into Rex, sending them both crashing hard into the wall.

Kimber growled in frustration and then yelled, “That's enough!” before running at Wrecker, jumping up and doing a spinning kick, her foot making contact with his chest and pushing him back.

“Kimber Sallaros…,” said Wrecker, an angry rumble in his voice. Then he taunted her, “You should’ve taken Admiral Tarkin’s offer to join the Empire.”

That made her grit her teeth both in anger and sorrow and her clenched fists shook at her sides. He was sounding a lot like how Crosshair did back in the hangar on Kamino when he’d said almost the same thing to her, trying to convince her to stay with him. That and she didn’t like being reminded of Tarkin and the deal he’d tried to make with her.

“No! Stop it!” she cried, throwing a punch at him.

Wrecker caught her fist in his hand and bent her arm backwards away from him, eliciting a yelp of pain from her. He reared his other arm back to strike her, but then all of a sudden, he was struck in the helmet by Hunter wielding a gas tank. Wrecker released his hold on Kimber’s arm and she faltered back slightly. She caught sight of Hunter’s blade on the ground beside her and she quickly picked it up. She then watched as Hunter repeatedly kept swinging the tank up at his brother’s head until Wrecker’s helmet flew off. Then Wrecker withdrew his large vibroblade and whipped around to stab Hunter, but Hunter held the tank in front of him, so the blade pierced the side of the tank and released another small plume of gas, which hit both of them. Hunter cried out and dropped the tank and Wrecker dropped the knife. However, Wrecker stooped back down and picked his blade back up while Hunter held his face, fighting off the effects of the gas. Wrecker lifted his knife to attack Hunter, but Kimber jumped between them and blocked Wrecker’s blade with Hunter’s knife. The force behind Wrecker’s attack was powerful and even though she managed to stop it, it drove Hunter’s vibroblade out of her hands and she fell to her knees. Just then, Hunter ran forward with a yell at Wrecker, driving his shoulder into Wrecker’s chest and forcing him back away from Kimber, making the larger Clone drop his knife. Wrecker placed a foot behind him and put his weight on it to stop his movement. He grabbed Hunter by the shoulder and pulled him off of him, sending him to the ground with a loud grunt.

“All Clones in violation of Order 66 shall be terminated,” he stated, looking down with dark eyes at Hunter.

“No!” Kimber cried and she sprinted towards Wrecker, jumping onto his back and wrapping her arms around his thick neck. As he struggled and pulled against her grip, which she was losing fast, she yelled, “Hunter, run!”

“No, Kimber!” Hunter cried out.

By then, it was too late. Wrecker broke Kimber’s hold on his neck and grabbed her arm with both hands, throwing her towards the nearest wall. As she flew through the air, she heard Hunter yell her name in fear…along with another voice crying out for her.

Omega’s voice.

Just as the panic at suddenly hearing Omega there rose up within her, Kimber’s body met the wall with great impact, her head smacking hard against it. Her breath was knocked out of her and everything went dark immediately as she dropped to the ground, Hunter’s voice calling for her again being the last thing she heard.

The world around her was hazy as Kimber’s eyes fluttered open. There was a ceiling light shining right into her eyes and she blinked a couple times to adjust. Was she back in the med room? The light above her looked like one of the ones from there. The back of her head and neck hurt and the rest of her body was sore. She had a feeling there was definitely gonna be some bruising on her back, but luckily she was wearing her armor, so that helped with the brunt of the damage she’d taken. She let out a groan as she moved to sit up.

Just then, someone was at her side and they took her hand and also pressed up on her back, helping ease her up. She could hear their familiar voice speaking to her, but in her grogginess of coming back to consciousness, she didn’t fully register the voice at first. She rubbed at her eyes and ran a hand over her face, now fully waking up. When she looked up, she saw that she was indeed back in the med room, lying on the floor on the side of the room. Her head turned and she found Echo kneeling at her side, a glad look on his face.

“I’m relieved you’re okay,” he said through a sigh.

“Echo…,” she said, realizing it was him next to her. She looked him over briefly and he seemed to be okay, too.

There was movement out of the corner of her eye and she looked up to see Rex walking up to them, saying as he saw her, “Welcome back, soldier.” He too also seemed relatively unharmed.

“I’m glad you’re both all right,” she said. “You guys took quite a hit. Where’s Wrecker? Is everyone else okay?”

“Everyone’s fine,” Echo answered. “Rex managed to get the jump on Wrecker and stunned him. We brought him back here and his chip’s been removed…but he hasn’t woken up yet and it’s been over at least a couple hours.” He looked back over his shoulder and leaned back so Kimber could see the rest of the room.

She peered around him and saw Wrecker was lying on his back on the surgical table. Tech and Hunter were asleep in chairs at the foot of the table next to the surgical console and Omega was seated at the side of the table, her head and arms resting on Wrecker’s arm as she too slept. However, there was no sign of Kida or Rina.

“Where are the girls? What happened to Rina?” she asked, her anxiety building at them not being there.

Rex then informed her, “They’re in another room. Kida’s fine, but...we’re not sure of Rina's condition. She’s alive, but barely. Kida got her out and she’s doing everything she can for her. She said she’ll update us as soon as possible.”

“Oh stars…!” she gasped, bringing her hands up to her face. “Wrecker’s going to be so heartbroken if we lose her.”

“Rina’s strong. I’m sure she’ll pull through,” Rex reassured her. “She knows as well as the rest of us that it wasn’t Wrecker’s fault.”

Then all three of them heard stirring close by and, to their relief, they saw Wrecker moving on the table, patting Omega’s head of blonde hair on his arm. She shifted, waking up at his touch.

“Hey, kid. Why…why the long face?” he asked as she lifted her head.

“He’s awake!” she exclaimed to wake the other two up.

Hunter sat up and Tech bolted up from his sleeping position and then just replied nonchalantly as the two of them stood up, “Oh. You made it.”

Echo and Rex helped Kimber up to her feet and she quickly went over to Hunter, grabbing his hand right away. He flinched slightly at the unexpected contact, but when he turned and realized it was her, his expression softened with ease. He reached up with his other hand to cup the back of her head and he brought his head down until their foreheads touched, no words needed between them to express how glad they both were to see each other safe and sound.

Then Kimber looked to Wrecker and said, giving him a light pat on the shoulder, “Welcome back.”

He chuckled at seeing her and then groaned slightly from the lingering pain in his head from the surgery. “W--where’s Rina?” he then asked, looking around.

Everyone all exchanged sad, apprehensive looks, unsure how to respond to his question, which only made him even more worried.

Finally, Kimber answered, “We don’t know her condition yet, Wrecker. Kida’s with her now and should hopefully update us soon.”

His expression fell right away, guilt and melancholy shadowing his whole face as he recalled exactly what he had done. He’d been conscious of his actions the entire time, but he couldn’t stop himself. He had thrown Rina into the wall; he’d heard the sounds of her body impacting against the metal wall and he’d wanted to rip his own heart out for harming her. In his head, his thoughts had been solely on killing her because she was a Jedi, even though he would never hurt her ever in his life. Now…if he had indeed killed her…he would be forever lost and he would never forgive himself as long as he lived.

Seeing the operation had proved successful, Rex then stepped up with Tech’s brain scanner, declaring that they had one chip down and three more to go and asking who was next to go. Wrecker got up from the table and Echo stated he would go next. As he got himself situated on the table, Kimber gave him a firm kiss on the cheek for luck and then he laid down as Tech prepared the surgical pod for round two of the brain surgeries.

As the procedure started, she noticed Wrecker sitting by himself in the back corner of the room and her heart hurt at seeing him so downtrodden. No doubt he was harboring a lot of guilt not only for attacking his brothers and her, but for hurting Rina, too. All she could do was hope with all her might that Rina would be okay and her survival would alleviate some of Wrecker’s guilt.

She went over, knelt beside him and just threw her arms around Wrecker’s neck, hugging him tightly. “It wasn’t your fault,” she whispered.

Then she felt his head fall into her shoulder as he responded, his voice cracking, “I tried so hard…to fight it…and I couldn’t. Now…Rina might be dead because of me.”

“Don’t say that, Wrecker,” she responded, tightening her arms around him. “We can’t lose hope right now. We can’t give up on her.”

His arms came up around her, holding onto her desperately for comfort in that moment when he was trying so hard not to break down. The thought of losing Rina was tearing him apart inside. If Rina was dead, he didn’t think he could bear it and would likely die himself. His life would no longer have any meaning, not without her. She had changed his life so much since the day he’d met her and now, he couldn’t imagine not having her with him anymore. Even though he still had Kimber, his brothers and his little sister, there would forever be something missing in his life; a ray of light in the darkness, a shred of joy, a piece of his heart…forever gone.

In the midst of his mental lamentations, he recalled words Hunter had once told him a while back when Wrecker had gone to him, asking what it really meant…to be in love.

“Hunter…you and Kimber are in love, right?” Wrecker had asked him.

“Yeah, we are,” Hunter answered.

Shyly, Wrecker admitted to him, “Well…I think I love Rina.”

“I’ve heard you say so to her before, but why do you seem unsure?” his brother asked.

“Well…I know you and Kimber are happy together and I’m happy with Rina…but I just don’t really know what it means to be in love, so I don’t know if it’s really what I feel.” He looked Hunter in the eyes and went on to ask, “What does it really mean to be in love, Hunter?”

Hunter grinned softly at him, touched that Wrecker had come to him for such advice. “Being in love is more than just physical attraction, intimacy of any kind or being happy around someone. Being in love is…when you don’t feel complete anymore without the person you care for most and your heart is no longer your own,” he began. “Their happiness becomes your happiness and you always want to do everything you can to see them smile. You both support each other and do things for each other without ever expecting anything back. Any time apart from them feels like an eternity and all you can think about is when they’ll be back in your arms again. They’re your last thought before going to sleep and your first thought when you wake up. Your own safety and wellbeing doesn’t matter; theirs will always come first in your mind. Any thought of being without them or not having them in your life anymore…feels like it’ll rip even your very soul apart. As long as they’re with you, then you know you can do anything, alone or together.” Hunter then went up to Wrecker and laid a hand on his shoulder. “If you can’t picture a life without Rina; if you can see yourself being with her and only her without any hesitation...then I’d say you are in love with her.”

In that moment, Wrecker felt as though he’d been hit by a gunship as the realization of his true, deep feelings for Rina came to him.

Though, before he could fully process it all, there were footsteps coming from outside. Kimber released his hug on him and they both stood up to see Kida running into the room. Everyone else turned around as she came in, looking at her expectantly. The room was dead silent, save for the light whirring of the surgical pod, as they all awaited Kida’s report.

Kimber clutched onto Wrecker’s arm, both for his comfort and for her own. There were tears falling down Kida’s face as she looked around at everyone, still catching her breath. That wasn't a good sign. Kimber lightly shook her head at what she saw.

“No…no, this can’t be true. Rina can’t be….”

Finally, Kida blurted out with a choked voice, “Rina’s alive.”

Audible sighs of relief sounded from everyone, especially Kimber and Wrecker.

Then right away, Kida went on to explain, “She’s alive, but not in good shape. Her back was injured pretty badly and she’ll definitely have bruising and possibly other injuries, too. I don’t have the proper medical supplies with me to help her enough and she’d have a better chance at fully recovering if we had the bacta tank on the Aurora.”

“So what do we do then?” asked Rex.

“I have a contact who owes me a favor on Kerkoidia, the next planet over in this system,” she replied. “He can be here in a couple of hours--or sooner, if he remembered to upgrade his ship’s hyperdrive--and he can take us back to Ord Mantell. I should be able to at least keep Rina stabilized enough to get her back there all right.”

Hunter then spoke, “Do it. If it’s what will help Rina, then call your contact and get her back to Ord Mantell as soon as you can.”

Kida gave a nod in understanding. Then she looked at Wrecker and told him, “She woke up and immediately asked for you.”

Wrecker looked shocked to hear that, given what he had done to Rina. He looked uncertain of what to do for a minute, but then Kimber grasped his hand. When he looked down at her, she was smiling up at him and her eyes were glistening with tears.

“Go to her, Wrecker,” she encouraged him. “Rina needs you.”

Now no longer needing any further urging, Wrecker turned back to Kida and asked, “Where is she?”

Once Kida gave him directions of where to go, he dashed from the medical bay immediately, knowing he had to get to Rina right away. She was alive and that was all that mattered to him. He had to see her; he had to see for himself that she was okay…and he had to tell her the truth of how he felt about her, now that he finally seemed to understand his own heart. He’d thought for a moment that he’d lost his chance to ever tell her, but now knowing he hadn’t, he wasn’t going to waste it.

Before long, he came to the room she was in, which was an additional med room with beds. She was lying on one of the beds, which had been raised up a bit in the back so she was more comfortable, and she turned and looked at him as he stood in the doorway. Seeing the worried look in his eyes, she sensed right away that his chip was gone and that he was back to normal.

The first thing she said upon spotting him was, in a hoarse voice, “Wrecker…thank the Force you're okay.”

His jaw dropped. “After everything I did…you were worried about how I was?”

She grunted. “This isn't the worst state I've been in,” she said, “but of course, I was worried about you. How's your head?”

“It's…just fine now,” he said.

He was still somewhat shocked. She had been worried more about him than herself…she'd been more concerned with his well-being than her own, just like what Hunter had said when describing being in love. Was it possible that she was in love with him, too?

“Rina…I…I'm so sorry,” he said in a low voice as he walked over and knelt at her bedside. “I tried as hard as I could to fight the chip, especially when all I could think about was killing you…but I wasn't strong enough. It wouldn't stop, I couldn't--”

“It's okay, big guy,” she soothed him, reaching over to lay her hand on the back of his.

He didn't accept that. “But it's not okay,” he said back. “I badly hurt you. I almost killed you!”

“But you didn't…and I know it wasn't you,” she told him. “The chip made you do it. I'd never blame you.”

“But why though?”

“It's just like I said before: I know you'd never hurt me. The inhibitor chip was what hurt me.”

That didn't seem good enough to Wrecker, but he also knew there'd be no arguing with Rina about this. He didn't understand how she could forgive him so easily after what he'd done. He glanced up at her, her bright blue eyes piercing him to the core. Those eyes that brought butterflies to his stomach every time they looked at him; eyes he'd dreaded that he'd closed forever and was grateful he could see them now. He turned his hand over to grasp hers and he held it firmly. He felt as though his chest was about to burst with everything he wanted to say.

Holding her hand with both of his, he raised it up and touched her hand to his forehead. “The thought of losing you…hurt more than any of the head pains I've had combined or any blaster wound I've ever gotten.”

“Wrecker…,” she started to say.

“No…please, there are things I gotta say,” he insisted. Then everything came spilling out of him like a broken dam. “I realize now how I really feel about you. I didn't understand it until I nearly lost you. You mean so much to me and I'm the happiest not when I'm blowing something up anymore, but when I'm with you.”

Rina gasped.

“You're someone special, Rina, and I want to make you as happy as you make me. Your smile is the brightest thing that lights up my life. I don't want to live without you…because I love you.”

Her mouth fell open even more.

“I know I've said it before because I thought that was how I felt, but now, I know that wasn't true,” he went on. “I understand now what love really is and I know it's what I feel. I love you…I really love you. I can't picture my life without you anymore. Your happiness is my happiness now. I don't feel complete without you. I love you, Ri--”

Wrecker's confession was cut off as Rina took his face in her hands, pulled him forward and crashed their lips together in a hard, passionate kiss. She ignored the pain in her back from holding onto him. It didn't matter at all. Her darling Wrecker had said just about everything she'd ever wanted to hear from him, including being serious about loving her. She normally wasn't all about sappy stuff, but this was Wrecker, the man who'd somehow worked his way into her stoic heart more than anyone ever had before. He could say anything and she'd melt like a block of ice in the twin Tatooine suns. There was no going back for her now, not ever.

When she pulled back, she told him through her heavy breaths, gazing up into his eyes and keeping her hands on his cheeks, “I love you, too, Wrecker. I've been so into you since the day we met a year ago. I've never met anyone like you and you make me feel things no one has ever made me feel before. I thought I was going to have to talk to you about whether or not you actually loved me, but now, it looks like I don't have to. You figured it out all on your own because you're smarter than you sometimes think. I only care about a handful of people and you're the one I care about the most. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, big guy…and…I don't wanna live without you either.”

If Rina hadn't been injured, Wrecker would've swept her up off the bed in an instant in his arms in a crushing hug, but he knew he couldn't do that. Instead, he kissed her again and then pressed his forehead tenderly to hers, taking both her hands in his and holding onto them tightly.

“Kida's gonna get you back to Ord Mantell so you can heal properly in the Aurora's bacta tank,” he told her, “but I promise, when the rest of us get back and you're all better, I'm giving you the biggest hug and I'm gonna hold you for hours until you can't breathe anymore.”

With a light chuckle followed by a small groan--since it apparently hurt to laugh, too--she replied, “I'm holding you to that, babe. I'm looking forward to it.”

Fortunately, Echo's chip removal also proved successful. By the time it was done and he woke up, Kida announced that her contact had arrived to take her and Rina back to Ord Mantell. All of the Clones helped carefully transfer Rina to a stretcher Kida's friend had brought to get her into the ship. Everyone bade farewell to the two women and gave Rina their well wishes on her hopefully speedy recovery before retreating back inside the Venator.

Though, before they left, Kida ran up to Rex, looking solemn. “I get the feeling…I won't be seeing you again for a while, will I?” she asked.

“I'm afraid it's true,” he told her. “There are people I need to find and meet up with soon…and I still need to keep under the Empire's radar.”

“I figured as much,” she said. Then she held out to him a black holopad. “This is an encrypted holopad device similar to one Rina gave Kimber a while ago. I thought if maybe you had this, you'd be able to keep in touch more often without fear of being found.”

Rex took the holopad in his hand and glanced down at it for a brief moment. Knowing he'd be able to still see Kida and Kori and not have to worry about his location being compromised gave him a sense of happiness he hadn't known in a long time.

As he pocketed the device, he replied with a small grin, “I'll certainly do my best. I need to make sure my son and his beautiful mother are doing well in my absence.” He stepped closer to her, cupped the back of her neck and pressed his lips to her forehead reverently.

She closed her eyes and smiled, committing the feel of his kiss on her skin to memory so she had something to hold onto of her Captain until she saw him again.

He wished her safe travels and she quickly got onto her friend’s ship. Within minutes, the ship left the planet with Kida and Rina and was on its way to Ord Mantell.

A few more hours went by as then Hunter and Tech went through the surgery and got their chips removed, as well. After long waits for both of them, the last of the chips were taken out and the Bad Batch were finally free of them.

Of course, during this time, Wrecker apologized to everyone for his actions from before. Naturally, no one blamed him for what he'd done and forgave him. Omega had even snuck some Mantell Mix in her pocket for her and Wrecker to share, which was her way of showing her forgiveness, which made him happy.

After a bit of time, Kimber happened to notice that Hunter and Rex were missing, so she went looking for them. After wandering a couple hallways, she eventually found a man-made exit in a side wall and saw both Hunter and Rex standing on a platform outside, conversing. She made her way down the hall to see them. Night had now fallen and the skies were dark outside, a veil of mist covering a lot of the land. She stopped near the entrance, listening to their conversation.

“Things aren't like before. Our priorities have shifted,” she heard Hunter tell Rex.

“So I've noticed,” Rex replied.

Hunter went on to tell him, “Omega needs us and I have to do what's best for my squad.”

Kimber smiled. Hunter was continuing to put Omega's safety first and that made her glad. He really was becoming a great father-figure for the kid.

“Which is what?” Rex asked.

“I'm still figuring that out,” Hunter replied, his voice filled with lingering doubt.

“I guess we all are. When you sort things out, let me know where you land. Tell the boys I'll see them around,” Rex told him.

As they grasped arms in farewell, Hunter said, “Stay out of trouble.”

Through a light chuckle, Rex responded, “Funny. I was gonna say the same to you.”

It was then Kimber decided to jump in and said, “You know staying out of trouble is impossible for these lads.”

The two Clones turned in her direction as she emerged from the shadows.

“And you're definitely not leaving without saying goodbye to me, at least,” she stated to Rex.

“I should've known you'd catch me before I could sneak away,” Rex responded, amused.

She gave him a quick hug and said in his ear, “Thank you…for taking me to see Jesse…and for saving my boys.”

“No need to thank me. I look out for you as much as I do all my brothers,” he said as he pulled away.

“Be safe, Rex. I hope we'll see you soon,” she said.

“I hope the same,” he said back. He looked between Kimber and Hunter for a moment one last time before saying, “Well...take care, troopers.” He placed his helmet over his head and made his way down a set of stairs off to the right that led down into the mist.

However, Hunter called out to him once more and told him before he went away, “If you're ever in a bind, you know how to reach us.”

Rex gave him a grateful nod and seconds later, he disappeared from their view into the mist.

After Rex left, Kimber looked at Hunter, catching sight of the corner of the bandage he had over his head wound under his bandana. “How are you feeling?” she asked him.

“I'm doing fine,” he answered. “And you?”

“I'm all right. I'm just glad this whole thing with the chips is over now,” she said.

“Me too,” he agreed.

She took his hand in hers. “By the way, I wanted to thank you for keeping your promise.”

Curious about what she was referring to, he asked, “What promise?”

“The one you made to me after we left Saleucami when you promised to protect Omega before me,” she clarified. “Back in the med room, you could’ve chosen to protect me from Wrecker's rage, but you didn't. You didn't hesitate to take Omega out of harm's way. For that, I'm grateful.”

His expression faltered slightly. “I almost failed to keep that promise, though. After he knocked you out, Omega came and he knocked me unconscious shortly after. I was afraid for her and when I came to, I feared the worst might’ve happened and there was nothing I could've done. Luckily, Rex was able to help keep her safe.”

“Nevertheless, you did as I had asked of you and I'm glad for that. Everyone is safe and well,” she assured him, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Should we go back inside?” he inquired.

Kimber looked out at the foggy, trashed landscape before them and up at the gray-blue night sky. “You go ahead,” she told him. “I think I'll stay out here a little longer and get some air.”

Hunter nodded at her, gave her hand a quick squeeze and then left her alone in the night.

Gazing out at the horizon, she inhaled deeply, taking in the cool night air and letting it fill her lungs. It wasn’t the freshest air in comparison to other planets she’d been on, but it wasn’t terrible either. At least, in the evening, it wasn’t. Then she exhaled long and slowly. The day was finally over. The Clones’ chips were all gone and would no longer pose a threat to any of them. They were free from ever being put under the Empire’s influence. It was such a comfort knowing her family would be safe from that danger. No more head pains, no accidental triggering of the chips, none of them accidentally hurting one another…it would never happen again.

Except…for Crosshair.

Even in the midst of her reprieve, her mind could still only wander back to him. He was the only one left of them to still have his chip and rectifying that would be much more difficult. They couldn’t go back for him, not with the Empire completely surrounding him. If only she could convince him of the truth and get him to come to them, it would be so much easier. With the chip out, he’d be free, too, and he’d return to them. They’d all be a proper squad once again. The hole in her heart from his absence pained her so as she continued to think about him, wondering if he was okay and where he was at that moment.

“Oh brother…where are you?” she whispered aloud to the wind.

Just then, she heard chirping coming from one of her pouches. It was her regular holopad comm going off. She wondered if maybe it was one of the Koriena Force trying to make contact because otherwise, she wasn’t sure who it could possibly be contacting her. She answered the transmission and was astounded at the familiar holographic figure that appeared before her.

“Crosshair?”

Sure enough, there he was: his head of silver hair, the normal toothpick between his lips, his same stoic expression on his face and still adorned in the black Imperial armor she’d last seen him in, his helmet tucked under his arm.

“It’s been some time,” he said back. “Not since…the masquerade.”

She inhaled sharply, remembering that she’d spotted him during their escape from the Imperial gala a while back. Though, she hadn’t been sure if he’d seen her, too…but that proved that he had. She was still too in shock at suddenly seeing him now and was struggling to think of what she should do or say. This was completely unexpected.

After a brief moment of silence, Crosshair went on to say, “You know, for someone who’s been very talkative in all her transmissions, you’re suddenly very quiet.”

“So he has seen all my messages,” she thought to herself. Then she shook her head and responded aloud, “Sorry, I just…I wasn’t expecting to actually hear from you.��

This was it. The timing of his call couldn’t have been more impeccable. Surely, this was a sign that he was wanting to come back; that she could convince him to let them help him. Even though it seemed too good to be true, she didn’t want to lose this opportunity. This was her chance to make everything right.

“Honestly…your timing couldn’t be more perfect,” she said to him. “Listen, we’ve learned something important that pertains to you, as well. Please, I’m begging you to hear me out.”

He repositioned his toothpick to the other side of his mouth with his tongue before replying, “I’m listening.”

Kimber honestly had been bracing herself to argue with him over this, but was surprised he was being so willing. It seemed too simple…but maybe that was a good thing.

She informed him, “We’ve learned that all of the Clones had inhibitor chips put into their heads and the Empire is using those chips to control the Clones. Order 66 was what triggered the chips and made everyone kill the Jedi and join the Empire. I believe that’s what’s happening to you, too.”

Crosshair remained silent, watching her intently.

“However, we’ve found a way to safely remove the chips,” she then said. “If you’ll allow us, Crosshair…we can do the same for you. We want to help you.” Her voice began to crack slightly as her emotions were building. “I want to help you. Please, I implore you…meet with us and we can free you from the Empire. We don’t have to be apart anymore. Please…I miss you.”

She paused, waiting for him to respond,

Then finally, after glancing down briefly, he looked back to her and asked, “Where are you?”

Kimber smiled gladly.

The transmission soon ended and Crosshair pocketed his holopad device as he stood in the brightly-lit hallways of Kamino. He’d had a hunch he had chosen to act on and it had proven to be right.

It had been entirely too easy…just as he’d predicted.

Kimber’s desperation to have him back had shown prominently in all the messages she’d sent him, so he knew that the minute he decided to reach out to her in return, she would be willing to do or say almost anything to get him to return to the squad. It was an asset he’d managed to manipulate and utilize effortlessly to his advantage.

Then the Clone Commander turned around and entered the room he was standing outside of, which was the Prime Minister’s office. Inside the office, surrounded by multiple, colorful holographic projections, were both Prime Minister Lama Su and Admiral Rampart, discussing things with each other. They both ceased talking and looked his way as he walked into the room and stopped just a few feet away from them.

“I know where to find Clone Force 99.”

#star wars the bad batch #the bad batch #bad batch hunter #bad batch fanfic #hunter x oc fic #sun and rain fanfic

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