Chapter Text
“We’ve got a shadow.” Hunter hissed into his comms, glancing nervously over his shoulder in the direction he sensed the man. The group tensed, Omega sensing there was a problem despite not hearing Hunter’s message. She instinctively moving closer to Hunter and Wrecker as Echo and Tech glanced around, slowing slightly to stay a step behind. Wrecker adjusted his grip on the three crates he was carrying and they moved a slight bit faster, spurred on by the unknown threat.
“Only one person?” Echo asked, hand on his blaster, and Tech’s eyes flickered to him off his datapad as he brought up the proximity sensor. Wrecker began talking to Omega, trying to get her mind off the sudden tension, to not worry her.
“Only one person.” Hunter affirmed quietly. “He’s been trailing us for around an hour. I assumed he was just moving the same direction as us, but he’s been following us so closely that he’s clearly trailing us.”
“He’s probably just making sure our delivery goes smoothly.” Echo shrugged, not thinking it was a real problem. “We can manage one man.”
The Bad Batch were on a mission for Cid, to deliver three crates of great value across the city of Ord Mantell to a buyer. It would make sense for the buyer to send a man to monitor their progress and make sure the delivery went well, so Hunter relaxed, noting that Omega copied him. Anyway, like Echo said, they could deal with one man on his own.
They continued walking, Tech monitoring their shadow on the proximity sensors, noting that it neither moved closer nor moved farther away. It just followed them at the same distance.
Hunter kept his eyes fixed forwards, seeming nonchalant about having someone trailing them, though he couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. It was a façade to not scare Omega, he was silently freaking out, and he jumped when Tech laid a hand on his shoulder, giving him a comforting nod. Hunter knew that Echo and Tech were watching their backs, but he still silently missed their normal rearguard, their sharp-eyed sniper Crosshair.
But Crosshair had chosen the Empire, and he’d traded his grey armor for the Imperial black armor of the Empire. Hunter wondered if Crosshair would ever see reason, but he doubted it. If even his brothers couldn’t convince him, then nothing could.
---
Wrecker and Hunter were doing a good job of acting normal, Hunter had his fond smile on again while listening to Wrecker telling Omega an enthusiastic old story about tookas, Omega laughing along and listening attentively. Tech was monitoring his datapad proximity sensors, so it fell to Echo to watch their shadow in real life. He was careful to only snatch short glances over his shoulder, just to monitor where he was, not long enough to note specific details about their shadow.
But Echo did notice the rifle that peeked above the shoulder of the man who followed them, not a Firepuncher like Crosshair would have used, but a standard rifle. The man was dressed in non-descript black clothes, with a long leather coat, and a hood over his face so Echo could see no features. He nudged Tech, and when Tech looked up at him, he signed a message to him. Goggles. Picture. Interrogative?
Tech got the message and turned to look at the man, not bothering to hide it, and turned back to the front to examine the picture, bringing it up in large on his datapad. Tech took one look at it and froze, his feet suddenly standing still for a second until he came back to himself and started walking again, Echo fixing him with a confused look as he slowed down again slightly to keep pace with Tech.
Tech was stunned, but it was important he told Echo what he saw, so he quickly used a private comm channel to speak to Echo. “Echo. That’s Crosshair.”
It was Echo’s turn to freeze, stunned, though his legs continued mechanically moving. He leant over and glanced at the picture. “You sure? It could be any bounty hunter, you know.”
“Positive.” Tech affirmed, trying to keep the shock out his voice and failing.
“What’s he doing here?” Echo asked, stunned.
Tech sighed, shaking his head. “Why would I know that?” Echo grimaced, realizing that he’d asked Tech an impossible question.
“Good point. But we can’t tell Hunter, Hunter would freak out.”
Tech nodded to himself, knowing the truth in Echo’s words. Hunter would try to neutralize Crosshair as a threat and panic, and Tech believed that he was not a threat. “It’s just Crosshair, with no armor and no squad, so I doubt he’s coming from the Empire.” Echo nodded agreement.
“True. You think he’s defected?”
“I can think of no alternative.” And it was true.
“We should ask him what he’s doing here. Discreetly, of course.” Tech nodded affirmatively, tapping at his datapad to try to find the coordinates of Cid’s bar on the planet.
“We could say that we are going for a walk and talk to him then.” Tech suggested as the map came up on his screen
“Good idea.” Echo sighed, ignoring the curl of fear that had suddenly come up at the thought of talking to the man who last they knew, hated them. But if he was here and had defected, then something would have had to have happened. What changed? Did he finally come to his senses? Did he annoy them and now he was on the run?
Up ahead, Hunter, Omega and Wrecker had stopped, watching Echo and Tech curiously as they were nearly eight feet behind and walking considerably slower than the other three had been. Realizing this, Tech and Echo sped up, catching up as Echo realized that they were at the building they were delivering the crates too.
“Wrecker and I are going into the building to make the delivery, you guys wait out here.” Echo noted Hunter’s nervous glance around, and sighed to himself.
“We don’t think the man is a threat, Hunter, he’s just making sure the delivery was successful.” Echo told him over comms as Tech continued to tap away at his datapad.
Nearly twenty meters behind them, Crosshair’s comm beeped, and he raised his arm, looking at it. He had received a message on his comm from Tech, and opened it cautiously. It read “Go to 15, 45, 05, 95, Crosshair, when we arrive wait for Echo and me to come find you. Make sure to stay out of sight.” Crosshair nodded to himself, turning and disappearing down the nearest alleyway with not a second glance at the group he had been trailing.
---
The Bad Batch made it back to Cid’s bar with no problems, and after receiving their pay, they settled down to spend a lazy afternoon at the canteen. Omega challenged Hunter to a game of dejarik, with Wrecker being the loud supporter. Echo and Tech used the distraction to slip out, leaving Echo’s datapad with a note that they were going for a walk.
They left their helmets, but took their comms and were still in their armor when they stepped out of the hot, noisy bar into the coolness of dusk. Once outside, away from the noise, they just stood there, just outside the doorway, preparing themselves. A voice startled them out of their thoughts.
“You wanted to talk?” Came the snake-like voice they hadn’t heard in over a year, Tech and Echo spinning to see Crosshair, hood down, leaning against Cid’s bar. The voice was pitched low, and with all the noise Wrecker and Omega were making, Tech doubted that Hunter could hear Crosshair’s voice, but he decided it was better to be safe than sorry.
“Let’s go farther away,” he began walking over to Crosshair, with Echo one cautious step behind. He continued walking down the street in a random direction, noting that both Echo and Crosshair followed him. Once Tech judged that they were safely out of the hearing of Hunter, he stopped, and waited for the other two.
“Are you with the Empire?” Echo asked as soon as he stopped walking. Crosshair lifted his keen eyes to meet Echo’s, sighing. Echo noted that he still had his rifle with him, and that it definitely wasn’t anything like his Firepuncher that was now on the Marauder, gathering dust along with his armor.
“No. I left.” He said shortly, Tech noting he had a toothpick in his mouth as usual. “Does Hunter know I’m here?”
Tech shook his head. “Echo and I are the only two who know right now.” His curiosity piqued, Tech continued. “What brought about that change?” Tech questioned, sincerely interested in the answer. Echo raised an eyebrow, but neither noticed it.
“I shot my commanding officer.”
The answer was delivered so matter-of-factly, that it stunned Tech and Echo. That was something they never thought they’d hear from their suddenly rule abiding brother after he left them for the Empire a year ago. Echo stared at him with something nearing awe, and Tech cocked his head questioningly, his eyes interested behind his goggles.
“Why did you do that?”
“He let a clone die.” Crosshair mumbled, slightly embarrassed, looking away at the bustling streets of the nightlife in Ord Mantell. They were standing in the mouth of an alley, next to some shady building that Crosshair didn’t know the purpose of but guessed that it was something illegal based on the number of weapons he could see through the gap in the curtains.
Sensing his discomfort, Tech moved on with his questioning. “Why are you here then?” Crosshair didn’t answer, still watching as people moved towards the open bars, lights flashing. Contrasting music came from different bars on the same road, and it made a terrible sound when you could hear all of them. Hunter would have hated it, he smiled to himself.
“Do you want to join us?” Echo asked instead, getting straight to the point. Crosshair hurriedly shook his head, glancing up at Echo worriedly, and silently celebrating when he didn’t see disappointment on Echo’s face. There was nothing of that kind on Tech’s face too, and he wondered at that. Were there problems he didn’t know about in the group now? Were they arguing a lot? It was clearly an environment that they didn’t want Crosshair to join, yet they had a child there?
“That’s not why I’m here.” He sighed, not wanting to continue but knowing he had to. “I’ve got no one else to go to, so I came here.” Tech nodded, understanding, though Echo was still confused.
“You’ve left the Empire, is that the truth?” Crosshair looked up, meeting Tech’s eyes with an honesty that Tech had never seen before from the normally secretive clone.
“Yes, I’ve left them. I’ve got a higher reward for my capture or death than you all do.” He said, with some evident pleasure. Echo rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t stop the small smile. Tech could, though, tapping at his datapad he produced from seemingly nowhere – Echo could have sworn he didn’t have it when they left Cid’s bar.
“What do you want to do now?” Tech asked calmly, trying not to let the joy that he felt at being reunited with his brother once more show, having confirmed that Crosshair was indeed on the Empire’s Wanted list, with a pretty high bounty for “killing Imperial officers”.
Crosshair again sighed, clearly unwilling to speak. “I wanted to join the Rebellion and make the Empire pay for what they’re doing, but I don’t think they’ll trust me.” He sighed, again looking at the ground, disheartened. He didn’t know what to do, he wanted to make the Empire pay for taking away and killing people like Mayday, clones who were controlled by the chip, and maybe rescuing them, but he knew any clones or natborns wouldn’t trust him, remembering him as Commander Crosshair of the Empire.
Echo and Tech shared a look. “They’ll trust you if I vouch for you.” Echo offered, and Crosshair looked up once again, confused. “I’ll go with you and vouch for you. You’ve had your chip removed, so they should trust you now.”
Crosshair was already shaking his head. “You’re with your brothers, where you deserve to be. I’m not that -“
“Crosshair, I was already planning on leaving.” Crosshair froze, looking to Tech to see if this was true, and his eyes widened with Tech nodded. “I’m not going to spend all my time running stupid missions when I could be breaking my vod out of the Empire. I haven’t told Hunter yet, but I was going to leave in a few weeks.” Echo felt slightly bad, seeing the stunned look on Crosshair’s face; Crosshair had missed a lot and he didn’t know it.
“But they won’t take me.” Crosshair protested, slightly shocked. He had thought that there might be problems, but he didn’t think that one of them would try to leave because of those problems. “I’m a lost cause, Echo-”
“They will take you. Shall we ask him, Tech?” Tech nodded assent, smiling to himself.
“The best place to do that would be at the Marauder. Come, Crosshair.” Tech and Echo moved off, and Crosshair reluctantly followed them. He didn’t really have a choice, he was practically broke with no ship on Ord Mantell, they were his only chance.
Tech led them through the streets to the ship, following the map from his datapad to the port and then navigating from memory to find the Marauder. When the Havoc Marauder came into view, neither Tech nor Echo missed the small shake Crosshair’s shoulders made, as he pulled his hood back on. They also pretended to ignore the tiny sound of Crosshair’s sniff, clearly letting their brother cry in peace, though they had no idea why he was crying. He had stopped crying and rubbed his eyes by the time they reached the ship, but he still didn’t remove his hood.
Tech shut the ramp behind them and called Rex, who didn’t take long to answer.
“Hunter?” He said as the holo appeared, then frowned seeing at it clearly wasn’t Hunter. He had been expecting Hunter to try and convince him to make Echo stay with the Bad Batch and had even planned a sort of convincing speech to try to tell Hunter that Echo could make his own decisions, but it clearly wasn’t necessary here.
Instead of Hunter, Tech was standing near the holo, with Echo beside him. Crosshair was leaning against the wall in the shadows a few feet away, not visible to Rex. “Tech, Echo, what’s going on?” Rex asked worriedly, hoping that nothing was wrong.
“Can you pick me and a friend up tomorrow instead of in three weeks?” Echo asked, getting straight to the point, and Rex blinked in surprise.
“You’re leaving now? Have you told them yet?”
“He’s told me.” Tech interrupted quickly. “We’ll tell them tonight.” Rex nodded, looking at something that Tech and Echo couldn’t see on the holo.
“I think we can do it.” Rex frowned at the chart that said which ships were busy for the next few days. “One of our smaller ships is free tomorrow, so I will requisition that and come down tomorrow.” He paused, still curious. “Who’s the friend?” The question was necessary for security reasons and for satisfying Rex’s curiosity.
Tech and Echo turned to Crosshair, who slowly detached himself from the wall and threw back his hood, stepping into view. “Hello, Rex.” He rasped, as Rex looked visibly startled.
“You left the Empire?” He stared at Crosshair, stunned. Now that was something he hadn’t expected, not by a long shot. He’d been maybe expecting some other clone, maybe 501st or otherwise.
“I shot my commanding officer.” Crosshair said calmly, slightly tired of repeating that. “And I got the chip taken out ages ago, I’m sure of it.” Rex nodded to himself, while forcibly changing his expression to a calmer one, though he was still stunned at the news. Crosshair shooting his commanding officer?
For a second, he wondered if Crosshair did that sort of thing before the chip, but he doubted it because surely Crosshair would have been decommissioned for that. But if he had done that sort of thing – well, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea of Rex’s to punch Crosshair.
Rex pulled out a datapad, turning away from the holo slightly as he tapped at it, bringing up what Tech had checked earlier. “You’ve got a higher wanted price than Cody!” He remarked, startled. “Who’d you kill?”
“No one important, sadly. He was Lieutenant Nolan.” Crosshair sounded entirely not sorry about the whole situation, but he was slightly annoyed he didn’t get to kill Rampart or Tarkin. But there was still time for that to change, so he wasn’t too annoyed.
“Why?” Rex turned back to them, frowning now at Crosshair. This was the most important question, to see why he turned against the Empire and if he could be trusted.
Crosshair didn’t answer for a few seconds, and when he did, he sounded somehow sad. “I realized the Empire was wrong. “ He sighed, and continued. “They’re phasing out clones, Rex. More and more healthy clones are being taken away to Force-knows-where, and it’s certainly not retirement. This Lieutenant Nolan, he sent a reg and me out to get pointless boxes of armor in the winter, a suicide mission due to how many droids there were, let alone the weather which nearly killed us. We made it back, but he died because Nolan refused to get him help. So I killed them.” Crosshair was leaving plenty unsaid, but his expression was sad, and it was clear he was telling the truth.
Rex nodded, sighing. “I believe you, Crosshair. If Echo vouches for you, and if you let us scan your head for your chip on arrival, then we’ll take you and Echo.” Then Rex frowned, looking at Tech. “Does Hunter even know Crosshair’s there?”
Tech shook his head. “We don’t plan on telling him.” Rex looked like he was going to protest that, but decided against it, shrugging.
“Fine with me. Where are we meeting? I can be there around noon, if you want. Ord Mantell, right?”
Echo nodded, and Crosshair stepped out of the holo’s range, melting back into the shadows. “Meet us at the Marauder. We’ll pick up Crosshair from somewhere, and then we can leave.” Echo told him. Rex smiled, an honest smile at his vod.
“It’ll be good to see you, brother.” Echo nodded back, smiling also.
“Yes, vod.”
Then Rex ended the holo, turning away from the projector to the other two in the room, who hadn’t been listening to the conversation. “We’ve got two new recruits.” He called to Gregor and Howzer, the two clones who served as his assistants.
“Good.” Howzer answered with a smile. “Who is it?”
“Echo and Crosshair.” Howzer froze, stunned.
“Crosshair. Commander Crosshair from the Empire?” He said slowly, blinking when Gregor waved a hand in front of his face, and then slapping Gregor, who just laughed.
“He left the Empire.” Rex sighed, talking over Gregor’s chuckles. “He can explain when he gets here.”
“You’re sure he’s not chipped?”
“He says he’s not, but we’re checking when he gets here. Get Feedback to find the chip scanner, I’ll be bringing him in around late evening.” Howzer nodded, solemnly moving off. Gregor just shrugged, continuing his work.
---
“We should go and tell Hunter I’m leaving.” Echo sighed, not looking forward to the next part. “Where are you going, Crosshair?”
Crosshair shrugged.
“Do you have anywhere to stay the night?” Tech asked, eyes narrowed. Crosshair didn’t answer, staring at the wall, but eventually he shook his head.
Echo sighed again. “You are going to stay here the night, Crosshair. You can get your stuff from here, we have your armor and rifle and other stuff. You can have your bunk, no one’s taken it.” Tech told Crosshair, who only nodded as a response.
“How are we going to explain that to Hunter?” Echo protested, and Tech shrugged with a smile.
“You sold it. Rex needed some money, and we said that we’d never need it.” Crosshair had a small smile on his face at their words, and also what it implied. He was getting his precious Firepuncher back.
“Thank you, Tech, Echo.” He said, honestly, meaning it for once in his life.
Tech nodded. “Stay on the ship and keep it locked. If Hunter gets in somehow, hide and we’ll sneak you out. Get all your stuff, I’ll be along early tomorrow morning to take you somewhere you can wait for Rex.” Crosshair nodded, looking Tech in the eye.
“And Crosshair?” Tech began, wondering how to phrase it. Then he gave up, and instead just hugged his brother hard. Crosshair looked incredibly startled, but he hugged Tech back. “I’m so glad you’re back.” He whispered in his taller brother’s ear. Crosshair never responded, but he hugged Tech back harder, and Tech knew his message was received.
---
“You’re leaving!” Hunter repeated in a loud incredulous voice, catching the attention of everyone else at the bar, including Omega and Wrecker. “Where are you going?”
“Where we should have been long ago.” Echo answered pointedly as Omega slid off her seat where she was drinking juice, and ran over.
“You’re leaving Echo?” She said, clearly upset, her voice had the sound that she was about to cry. Hunter tried to give her a hug, but she pushed away.
“Yes, kid.” He admitted tiredly. “I’m going to help Rex.” Omega proceeded to burst into tears, rushing forward and wrapping her arms around Echo. “I’ll call you guys every week I can. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine, kid. I’ve got friends.”
Hunter scoffed, clearly hostile to the idea. “You’ve got Rex. Everyone else would just put up with you cause you don’t have a team to go with.”
Echo met Hunter’s eyes. “I have a very good friend of mine that I’ll be with, as well as with Rex.”
“Who?” Tech asked, appearing clueless as Wrecker stood and walked over.
“You know him. We just talked to him.” Echo hid his smirk from Hunter carefully. Tech nodded, pretending to realize who Echo was talking about.
“Don’t worry, he’ll be in good hands.” Tech affirmed, starting to turn away, then deciding to turn back. “Oh, we sold Crosshair’s armor and Firepuncher.”
Hunter opened his mouth to protest, but Echo cut him off. “My friend needed some money.” Hunter was turning red as he spoke, no lack of anger in his voice.
“He can get his own money. That’s not even your stuff, Echo.” Echo shrugged dismissively, as Omega slowly released him, retreating over to Wrecker, who placed a comforting hand on her shoulder
Wrecker, who up to that point had been watching silently, spoke up. “We’ll miss you, Echo.”
Echo sighed. “I’ll miss you guys too. But I will call you every week, I promise.” Tech had a small smile on his face as he spoke.
“Tell your friend to message me. Maybe we could talk sometimes.” Echo was at this point struggling not to burst into laughter at how many times they were managing to get Crosshair references past Hunter without his knowledge, and his face developed into a smirk.
“Will do, Tech.”
---
Echo sighed as the clone medic, Feedback, removed the scanning apparatus from Crosshair's head. He was worried, maybe the Empire had lied to Crosshair - it wasn't beyond them to do that - and had not removed his chip. But the machine light flashed green, and both Echo and Rex released a worried breath, though Howzer was still watching, not trusting Crosshair like the other two did. It wasn't that surprising, after all, Crosshair had gotten Howzer arrested and had been an insufferable rule abiding jerk as long as Howzer had known him on Ryloth.
“I told you I had no chip.” Crosshair hissed as he sat up, the clone medic showing Rex and Howzer the clear brain scan on his datapad.
“Well, if Feedback has cleared you both, then welcome to the Clone Resistance, Echo, Crosshair.”