#crosshair: [badly wounded] i don't think i'm going to make it

[robotsandramblings]

i had a really funny revelation that Crosshair and Echo were [during S3] and still are sharing the Havoc-4 call sign, probably even playfully fighting over it, now that Crosshair is back on the team,,

then i realized that Crosshair probably took up the Havoc-2 call sign because Tech is gone

IT STARTED OFF CUTE AND NOW I'M JUST REALLY SAD ALL OVER AGAIN 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[mrcaptainrex]

In Another Life

Imperial!Crosshair x F!Reader (First Person)

Warnings: Angst, Mentions of Violence, Betrayal

Word Count: 1.3K

Summary: After being captured by the Empire, Y/N and Crosshair have a chat about the life that could have been. The life that almost was.

A/N: Based off of my favorite line from Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022), “In another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.” Also, this is my first fanfiction. Please, reblog, even if it's shit. I would also love feedback, don't worry about hurting my feelings. Especially if it's shit.

I was really hoping that blaster shot would have killed me.

The mission was a longshot - we all knew that. It was going well at first, until Tech accidentally gave our position away. Then it all went to shit.

I barely even remembered getting shot. I remembered a searing pain in my side, dropping to the floor, and voices. One was familiar, I think. The others were completely foreign. And most importantly they weren't the Batchers. They were talking.. An argument maybe? Or maybe they were just tense. I could barely even see. It was like one of those dreams where you can't keep your eyes open, no matter how hard you try.

"Sir, she's a rebel. Shouldn't we just -" I don't remember much of this voice, but I definitely remembered the smell. Disgustingly clean and plastic-y.

"Don't you fucking dare!" This voice I knew. I know I had heard it before, but I wasn't quite conscious enough to place it. "This woman is your top priority. She dies, every single person in this room goes with her!" The voice was angry - no, scared. I think it was Crosshair. The last thing I saw before completely losing consciousness was a mask being placed over my face.

At that moment, I assumed I was just going to die. Those moments that I could barely even remember would be my last.

Oh how I wished that were true. I should have known life was never that kind to me.

The cell was surprisingly bright, and much warmer than the planet we were on. Assuming I was even on the same planet - or even a planet at all. I was on a small, incredibly uncomfortable cot in the corner of the cell. As I tried to sit up, the wound on my side screamed in protest. It was meticulously bandaged, and I could make out small IV marks on my arm. They treated me? Why?

It was then that I heard footsteps. Hastily, I lied back down in the shitty excuse for a cot and pulled the blanket back over me. Maybe if I just stayed asleep, they would-

"I know you're awake, Y/N." Crosshair said. This time his voice was unmistakable, no matter how badly I wanted it to be anyone but him.

I stayed quiet. The childish part of me thought if I stayed still he would leave. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect. With a sigh, he passed through the ray-shields keeping me captive and sat by my feet.

"Are we going to talk like mature adults?" He taunted.

I took a glance at him and sighed. "You look like shit."

"I'll take that as a no, then."

It wasn't a complete lie. He looked thinner, and pale. I couldn't even guess when the last time he'd slept was. His hair was freshly cut. I imagined that it must have felt weird for someone other than me to cut it. But his eyes, the ones I once looked at with such love and adoration, were dull. The light behind them was gone, as was his cocky smirk. The thing I hated the most was his armor. I remembered the day we spent an evening repainting it together. Now it was dull and grey.

We stayed quiet for a while. It felt like if one of us spoke we'd have to confront the reality neither one of us wanted to be in. He was the first to break the silence.

"We can still fix this. We can still fix us." He said softly. I could even hear traces of a stutter in his usually calm and collected voice. "I'm tired of pretending to hate you."

Despite the love in his words, they hurt nearly as bad as the blaster wound on my side.

"Me too." Was all I could force myself to say.

Carefully, I sat up and placed my hand over his. The second his skin touched my own, his body relaxed and a sigh escaped his lips. His perfect soldier posture dropped and he allowed himself a moment of peace. Just a moment.

"You have no idea how much I've missed you, Crosshair." I whispered. I could practically feel the relief flood through his veins as I spoke. He leaned forward slightly for a kiss, only to be stopped by my hand on his chest. "But we can't do this." I finished. I wanted so badly to pull my hand from his chest and kiss him with all the love I could muster. But I knew this couldn't work. Not when we're both fighting opposite sides of the same fight. As long as he was willing to do whatever the Empire wanted from him, I knew this couldn't happen. But that didn't mean I loved him any less. In fact, not being able to have him only made me want him even more. It killed me inside to have him so close yet so far.

I could tell that my rejection hurt him. In an instant, the façade came right back, and he pulled away. A disgusted scoff ripped through his voice as he stood from the cot. He pinched the bridge of his nose and inhaled deeply before turning back to me.

"Have you ever, once, thought about how I might feel about this?" He snapped. "I have been given a higher purpose! I was bred to do one thing - to fight. And under the Empire, I finally can. We can do good, Cyar'ika."

"Crosshair, I'm tired of fighting. We don't owe the Empire anything. We could run away together, be a family again." I pleaded. I stood up from the cot, ignoring the excruciating pain from my wound. "Look at Cut and Suu, they're happy-"

"Wasting their lives on a farm doing laundry and taxes. Do you honestly think I could ever be satisfied doing that with you?"

We both froze. As much as I wanted to believe it was his inhibitor chip, I knew he meant it. In his heart, he truly believed that he belonged under the Emperors thumb. It hurt to think that he thought so little of his possibilities when I knew he could be so much more.

He stood centimeters from me, still panting from his tangent. I tried so hard to hide the way my lip was trembling. I hated this. I hated how he stood, seemingly unaffected by the harshness behind his words. I hated how powerless I felt. I hated that I knew I could never bring myself to hate this man, no matter what cruel things he spat at me.

"Do you really mean that?" I asked.

He let out a frustrated sigh and shook his head. "This could all be so simple." He said. "Leave them behind. My brothers. The Rebellion. You won't win, and I won't be able to stop the things they'll do to you."

The dam broke, and silent tears spilled from my eyes. With all the strength I could muster, I forced myself to look into his eyes. "You know I can't do that." He held contact with my eyes for a few moments before feeling his own tears start to creep through his eyelids, and forcing himself to tear away. He made his way back through the ray-shield, but stopped when I called out one last time.

"In another life, I would have really loved just doing laundry and taxes with you."

But this wasn't that life, and we both knew it. This was the life where we are forced to hate each other, despite the love we both harbor. The life where we are destined to never truly earn our happy ending.

He processed my words for a moment, before placing his helmet back on his head, and walking away wordlessly.

[dragonrider9905]

Back atcha for the violence game! How about… 22 and 25?

Ahahahhahahha such great asks my friend!!!!! Hahahahha so, you reaaaaalllly chose violence XD I hope you know what you're askin for! I might get hated for this but here we go!!!! FULL HONESTLY!!!!! XD ;D I guess I went to bed and chose violence and you were like, nah, I woke up and chose violence, here you go! I love you for that!!!!

22. Your favorite part of canon everyone else ignores

Hmmmmm I really like this one. I gotta think XD I know there are things but once I'm put on the spot I'm like "I have no thoughts at all whatsoever for anything".

Hmmmmm

Ok, I got it.

So the Batch is a special forces group......it is sometimes funny but honestly, more often than not now, it makes me a little annoyed and rolling of eyes when I see so many fics, posts etc knocking them like "oh, how on earth did they ever accomplish anything without Echo, Omega etc" "Crosshair was their entire team, they can't do anything without him." "Oh, Cross and Hunter act like children and fight each other and parent Echo has to break them up"

They're completely missing the point.

Watching the Batch at their debut? They were flawless. They fought better than a well oiled machine together. The point of all their mess ups was they were USED to working as a TEAM. An integral member of the Batch left and trying to compensate for a lost limb? There's going to be problems. We're seen the problematic side but didn't get too much insight to how they were before, but the tell us they were legendary. We have to infere that this isn't normal for them to botch things up badly. Also, they pull off things no one else has, so that isn't botching anything. Cid even calls them her best people. And she don't compliment so that meant she meant it. As far as Echo being the only responsible one, again, they have a system for what works for their personalities. Hunter and Crosshair fight it out because that's how they handle it, then they're good. Before this, you have to infer, nothing like this ever came between them like this. They would never have acted like this before, and Echo wasn't an original Batcher so his wounds wouldn't be the same as someone who's grown up with each other.

Canon Batch with Hunter as the leader, Crosshair the obviously favorite youngest, Tech the nerd who has feelings but lots of thoughts, and Wrecker with intensive knowledge but a lovely childlike heart. Then Echo, who is a leader but respects his sergeant's command but challenges him like a brother.

25. Common fandom complaint you're sick of hearing

Ok, *takes a deep deep inhale* Are you sure you want this? Are you sure you're ready for this? Ok. SO.

I am SO sick and freakn tired of all the Hunter vs. Crosshair drama. Oh. My. Goodness. For one, they are trying to make up themselves so I think we as the fans can try to get along now? For goodness sakes? I'm so tired of seeing Crosshair fans and Hunter fans at each other's throats. I'm a Hunter girlie, no doubt about it, but that doesn't mean I can't be objective and know Hunter has some things he needs to sort through. And Crosshair does indeed have problems. That being said....I'm tired of hearing people say Hunter should have done more, that he doesn't care, that he has no character development and that Omega is his entire personality. I'm tired of hearing about everything he's done to fail everybody and how everyone else in the Batch is better than he is. He's always getting compared to in the worst ways possible and some of them aren't even fair or even canon compliant to his personality. I even saw one person say he had no problem leaving anyone behind and he didn't care about it.

Honestly, I do want some more from him as well to see how he's grown but being the leader, he's stuck! I'm a middle child, true, but I'm the oldest girl. Being the oldest girl is kinda like being the oldest in a way. When you're the one who's responsible for everyone, it hits a lot harder when things happen. When you get to make decisions just to make decisions it is TOTALLY different than when YOU HAVE to make decisions for your family. I want him to be decisive, and I want them to show him be a little more proactive but I know that'll come with the story. Of course he's going to be cautious of Crosshair because he was hurt. Hurts that run that deep are hard to heal! Plus he's now looking out for and defending Crosshair......oh, it's not enough for some people. Well, guess what, Hunter is standing up for his brother but has enough respect for him and trust him to handle his own situations too. He respected Crosshair to handle certain situations in a way he'd be comfortable doing it.

In short, can't we pleeeeeaaaasssseeeee move past "well, Hunter's a failure" "well, Crosshair is horrible!" Hunter said it himself, all they can try to do is be better.

Trust me, I kept this short. I could go on for a while about this topic. I know I could get murdered for saying some of this buuuuuuut there it is XD and not as well put as I was thinking :D Oh well, my vomited thoughts on the topic XD

Thanks for the ask and for actually taking the time to read the ramblings.

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