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crimsonwolf715 · 7 months ago

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Brain Fog

(Not me realizing while I was writing this that I'm behind on Bad Batch by two whole seasons. Well, I've been wanting to work on this since finishing season one of Bad Batch sometime at the end of 2021, but I got into other things and forgot about it. Anyway, Crosshair back with his brothers, exactly where he belongs.)

Crosshair sits on his bunk, safely away from the others. It’s been a month since he joined back with the Bad Batch. His mental capacity seems to be steadily going down since coming back. Tech mentioned something about slower cognitive function due to his chip being removed, which he had done after coming back, but he didn’t mention it lasting this long.

That and Omega’s voice is starting to grate on my nerves. Probably because she literally never shuts up.

Crosshair puts the headphone that Tech gave him on and the world suddenly delves into silence. He never used to like silence before. After a while more of flying, the ship lands and everyone else heads outside to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. Crosshair heads to the front and watches them out of the window. He takes the headphones off and settles down in the co-pilot’s seat for a nap. He dozes off and wakes up to Echo shouting.

“Empire’s coming!” Echo shouts. “We need to go!”

The comm crackles.

“Crosshair, start the ship,” Hunter says.

“On it.”

Crosshair starts the Marauder and everyone starts coming in.

“Step on it!” Hunter shouts.

Crosshair starts flying the ship away from the town.

“Watch where you’re going!” Tech exclaims as he comes over to the pilot’s seat.

Crosshair barely misses hitting the side of a mountain, then starts cursing under his breath.

“I’m taking over,” Tech says.

“Please do,” Crosshair replies.

Tech takes over and gets them far enough away from the town. They land and everyone disperses again. Crosshair heads out to get some air. Hunter grabs his shoulder, so he stops walking.

“Are you alright, Crosshair?” Hunter asks. “Don’t lie.”

Crosshair sighs. “I just have some brain fog, nothing to worry about, Hunter.”

Crosshair goes to keep walking and Hunter grabs his arm. Crosshair tenses up.

“Crosshair.”

“Why are you so worried?” Crosshair asks, pulling his arm away from Hunter.

“Because they’ve already hurt you once. I don’t want you to get hurt again.”

“I’ve been struggling with my cognitive function since my chip got removed. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“You almost crashed the ship.”

“I was giving everyone an adrenaline boost.”

“We all know that we don’t need any more of that than we already have. Just have Tech do a check. If nothing comes up out of the ordinary, then I’ll leave it alone.”

“Alright, Tech can do a check. If it means that I get some peace and quiet.”

Crosshair and Hunter walk back onto the ship and Tech’s working on something under the floor. Hunter stops and Tech pops up.

“Yes, Hunter?”

“Can you do a scan for Crosshair?” Hunter asks.

“Of course,” Tech answers. “Anything in particular that I should be looking for?”

“Anything with his brain.”

Tech freezes with his hand on the tablet. “Why?”

“Nothing like that. He’s been struggling with his focus.”

“Or maybe I’ll shoot the place up,” Crosshair says sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Tech does the scan. “Umm… that could be concerning,” Tech says.

“What could be?” Crosshair asks.

He flips the tablet around so Crosshair and Hunter can see.

“This is Crosshair’s body.”

“Wow.”

“Shut up, Crosshair.”

“I think you have an infection of some kind, Crosshair, so pay attention. These ‘hot spots’ are foreign things in your system. I just think we should run by the medic station and have Marianne check. How long has this been going on?”

“I don’t know. It started after I got my chip removed and has been getting worse since like a week after that.”

“A month?” both Hunter and Tech asks.

“Tech said that it was to be expected so I didn’t worry about it until it started affecting my peace without silence a week ago,” Crosshair explains quickly, stumbling over his words a bit in an attempt to get them out as he’s thinking them.

“That’s why you asked for the headphones,” Tech says. “I was wondering since you’ve never had a problem with the noise in the ship before Marauder.”

“Tech, go get the others so we can take off. We have a doctor to head to. Crosshair, just stay in your bunk. Wear your headphones if that’ll help, just don’t stress.”

Crosshair sulks back to his bunk and puts the headphones on, then leans his back against the wall behind his bunk. He closes his eyes and when the ship takes off, he grabs the post to make sure that he doesn’t pitch forward out of his bed.

It feels like I did something wrong. Well, I should have probably been honest with them and said that it was a problem. My aim’s been off and nobody’s asked about it. Maybe that’s why I didn’t say anything. My aim is perfect and yet nobody seemed to notice that my aim was off.

Once the ship is flying steady, Crosshair folds his arms against his chest.

No point focusing on the fact that I barely belong on this team anymore. Might as well get some rest and hope that whatever I have won’t kill me. But if it will, let it be quick and painless.

He starts to doze off, then feels a tiny hand on his shoulder. Then she starts shaking him. He pulls the headphones off to signal that he’s listening, but doesn’t open his eyes since he already knows that it’s Omega.

“Are you trying to curb the anxiety?” she asks.

“What?” Crosshair asks, opening his eyes.

“You’re leaning back with your eyes closed and your arms folded. When Hunter does that, he’s either angry or trying not to show that he’s anxious.”

“Or I’m just tired and trying to sleep.”

“That’s a possibility, I guess,” Omega says, looking at him like she’s trying to look into his soul. “But it’s not likely considering you look more peaceful when you sleep. It’s really the only time you look peaceful. Wrecker’s jealous because he said that he wants to have no nightmares like you do.”

Crosshair’s mind flashes back to the tests that he was dreaming about last night and he forces himself not to physically recoil.

“Yeah, no nightmares.”

“Personally, I just think you don’t respond to them the same.”

“Well aren’t you observant?”

Omega sits on the edge of his bed. “It’s okay to be scared. I can imagine how scary this is.”

“Respectfully, you can’t. It’s better that you can’t understand this. It means you won’t have to deal with it. Go have Hunter or Wrecker entertain you. I’d just like some time to myself.”

Omega nods, then obediently goes to find one of the others. Crosshair doesn’t put the headphones back on, but he closes his eyes again.

“Crosshair?”

Crosshair opens his eyes to find Tech in front of his bunk. He must have dozed off because he can hear that Hunter and Wrecker are asleep.

“What?” Crosshair asks, gauging his volume to people being asleep close by.

“Wanna come sit upfront?” Tech asks. “You’ll be more comfortable sleeping like that in one of the chairs.”

Crosshair gets up and follows Tech, mostly because he knows that Tech wants to talk about something if he went out of his way to wake Crosshair for this. Once they’re both seated and Tech’s checked the control panel, Tech sighs.

“I’m sorry for earlier,” Tech says, so quietly that Crosshair almost didn’t hear it over the sounds coming from the control panel. “I’m sorry if I made you feel bad about something you couldn’t control. Everything that happened isn’t your fault and I shouldn’t blame you for it.”

It takes Crosshair a minute to remember what Tech’s talking about.

“Blame me for it if it makes you feel better, Tech,” Crosshair says, kicking his feet up on the panel. “I never asked for it to happen, but I did absolutely nothing in my few moments of clarity.”

“That doesn’t make it your fault.”

“It makes me partially to blame. Not my fault, but I sure didn’t do anything about it. It’s fine, I’m over it.”

“The constant nightmares disagree.”

Crosshair sighs. Tech’s really the only one who knows what it looks like when Crosshair does have nightmares, so of course he’d know. Doesn’t mean that Crosshair didn’t wish that Tech didn’t know.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Crosshair says.

“I was never going to ask you to,” Tech replies. “You don’t like talking out your issues until you’re one hundred percent sure that you can’t deal with them on your own. I just wanted to apologize because I’m sure it wasn’t pleasant to see me react like that.”

Crosshair shrugs, deciding against telling Tech that it pissed him off more than made him sad. Or maybe that’s just what he’s telling himself.

“You should try to rest more. It’s a long way to Alderaan.”

Crosshair nods, then leans his head back and closes his eyes. The gentle hum of the equipment along with the sounds of everyone else sleeping lulls Crosshair to sleep.

Crosshair wakes up to someone shaking his shoulder. He cracks his eyes open in just enough time to see Wrecker running towards him and Tech, who’s standing there with a hand on Crosshair’s shoulder. Crosshair kicks back on the control panel and the chair slides back. Wrecker stops just short of Tech, who seems to have frozen.

“Crosshair!”

Wrecker scoops Crosshair into a rib-breaking hug. Crosshair, who doesn’t have the energy to fight, just turns into a limp noodle.

“Are you okay?” Wrecker asks, putting Crosshair down on his feet.

“Now I am,” Crosshair answers, dusting himself off. “How long was I asleep?”

“Only an hour and a half,” Tech answers. “Hunter wants to talk about our plans. He woke Wrecker up, which is why he’s so hyper.”

Wrecker hugs Tech, who pats his back. Crosshair sits back down and slides the chair back into its original position. Hunter walks over.

“Echo was on night shift yesterday so we’re gonna let him sleep,” Hunter says.

Hunter, Tech, and Wrecker sit down and Crosshair flashes back to when it was just the four of them.

“We need to figure out what we’re gonna do once we get down to Alderaan. While they’re a peaceful planet, we’re still on the run from the Empire. We don’t want anyone to get in trouble for ‘housing traitors’.”

Crosshair stares out the front window into hyperspeed.

I wonder if I could learn the different solar systems’ constellations. That would be cool. I would look like a nerd if I did that though. But it would be totally worth it if I could tell what system we’re in before Tech has a chance to tell everyone. Know-it-all.

A hand on Crosshair’s shoulder snaps him back to reality.

“Are you with us?” Hunter asks.

“I am now,” Crosshair answers.

“What’s the last thing you heard?”

Wait, what is the last thing I heard? Something about the planet.

“Something about Alderaan,” Crosshair answers.

Hunter sighs. “How much longer until we get there?”

Tech turns towards the panel. “Just shy of an hour.”

“Alright, let’s get ready to land.”

By the time that they get to Alderaan, Echo and Omega are awake. When they land, a woman is waiting. The hatch opens and Omega and Wrecker run out. She greets them warmly, then turns towards Hunter, Crosshair, Echo, and Tech.

“Hey. Not used to getting last minute holos from you guys. Everyone alright?”

“He needs his blood tested for infection,” Tech answers, pointing at Crosshair.

“Come on in then. That’s a quick process.”

Crosshair follows her into the building after being prodded by Echo.

“I’m Marianne, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you,” Crosshair says half-heartedly.

Marianne has him sit down and then starts digging through a bag. After searching for a solid five minutes, she pulls a syringe out.

“I’m gonna take some blood. Is that alright?”

Crosshair nods, then starts messing with his utility belt.

He feels the needle go into his arm and he grips his belt tighter. Once the needle’s out, he relaxes.

“Alright, give the computer a minute to analyze your blood. How did you get involved with the Batch?”

Crosshair sighs. “Just kinda happened.”

Marianne laughs. “Yeah, they seem to have that effect on people.”

“Marianne!” a male voice shouts.

“I’ll be right back,” she says, then steps out.

Crosshair looks at the patch she put over the needle prick. He pulls it off and throws it in the bin.

How did you get involved with the Batch?

Crosshair sighs.

Marianne walks over to Hunter after helping her father with gathering water. “I like your new member. He’s quieter than the rest of you.”

“He’s not new,” Hunter says. “That’s Crosshair.”

Marianne’s smile disappears.

“I may have offended him then. He didn’t give me his name, and I forgot to ask,” she says.

“He’ll be fine,” Hunter replies. “Did you get the results yet?”

Marianne looks at the data-pad. “Yeah, he’s got a pretty common virus. Not sure why it would still be in his system. There’s an anomaly, but the computer still thinks that I can cure it with the regular medicine.”

“Good. How long will that take?”

“First dose will take maybe ten minutes. You’ll take the rest with you and he’ll take it daily. Make it as close to the same time as you can.”

Hunter nods, then Marianne goes back into the tiny hospital building. After ten minutes of wrangling Wrecker and Omega, who insisted on playing tag, Crosshair comes out.

“Well?” Tech asks.

“I hate my life,” Crosshair says. “And I have to take this damn drug for a week.”

“But at least you’ll be better,” Echo replies.

Crosshair shrugs, then goes into the Marauder. After thanking Marianne and her family, they head to the Marauder. Crosshair’s settled in the co-pilot’s seat with a slightly distant expression.

“At least he’ll be better in a week,” Tech says, his gaze in the same place Hunter’s is.

Hunter nods. It’ll be good to have Crosshair back at one hundred percent.

#sicktember 2024 #sicktember #no.17 #brain fog #spaced out #the bad batch #clone force 99 #tbb crosshair #tbb hunter #tbb tech #tbb wrecker #tbb echo #tbb omega #angst #writing challenge #ao3 fanfic

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