#did crosshair know she used/uses a ranged weapon like him???? did she tell him that on tantiss???

[aethslove]

omega being a ranged shooter like crosshair is so special to me. if you even care.

[thewertsearch]

It's wert (heh) pointing out that the Aradiabot timeline where Gamzee flipped out and killed everybody in the session might not be one where Vriska was godtier, making this slightly less of an insane feat. With the error bars so large on what this could've been, I don't know what this tells us of his power level. That said, I do have a lot of speculations! (This is very long, my apologies.)

I think the lower bound of what the doomed Gamzee did was something like this:

Gamzee kills Equius (free) and then Nepeta (not using her hunting skills and speed to her fullest advantage). Nobody realises anything is amiss; the meowrails could simply be doing moirail things with their phones off.

Gamzee gets the jump on Eridan who doesn't know to take him seriously and whose best weapon is at this point the long-ranged Ahab's Crosshairs. People assume he's moping.

Gamzee kills Tavros and Vriska while questing at Vriska's. Aradiabot at this point probably knows that the timeline is doomed, so if she finds it odd Eridan hasn't duelled Sollux yet she'll either put it down to divergence, or not care because doomed innit. She's making preparations to leave, not fix things.

Gamzee kills Terezi and Karkat. Even if they know at this point, I doubt Karkat could fully believe it until he laid eyes on the bodies, and Terezi could well try arresting him before she goes to kill him. Karkat was the one who sent Equius after Gamzee in the main timeline, and while that was a doomed venture, he is pretty much the only person thinking in terms of team strategy in the trolls' session.

Kanaya, having worked out some of what's happening, has been messaging people like mad to rally some sort of party together to beat him, but she's getting a lot of no replies, except for Aradia who just unhelpfully tells her everything's doomed innit.

Gamzee kills Sollux before Feferi (we've seen Feferi's revenge leap, whereas Sollux's power and range and ability to fly make me think his revenge blast might well level anything within a few miles).

Kanaya goes to fight him and is killed. She goes down. When she comes back up again, Gamzee is gone to collect the bodies into a single place, and without any blood to suck, her rainbow drinker powers can't bring her back fully. When he gets back to retrieve her body, he kills her again, and this one sticks.

Aradia arrives after he finishes covering the book in blood and, forewarned and forearmed, kills him.

Gamzee has a lot of strength and speed, so if he gets near somebody who doesn't realise he's snapped, he could probably kill that person. Stealth and miscommunication do most of his work for him, with the rest largely down to people in the right order (Equius before Nepeta, Karkat before he can wrangle people into a defence, Kanaya not around any blood sources, etc).

While on the other hand the upper bound could easily have been:

Gamzee kills Karkat and Kanaya publicly but without immediate access to more victims (i.e. somebody's watching them on the Server side, or Karkat was mid-memo rant when he dies). Everybody knows immediately that he's snapped.

He then kills Nepeta, which is enough to send Equius into a rage when he finds out. He doesn't find out yet.

While people are talking about Karkat and Kanaya's deaths, he attacks Tavros and (godtiered) Vriska. He kills Tavros and is so much of a threat that Vriska has to retreat (as you can imagine, when she realises she had to run away, she gets very pissed and starts hunting Gamzee).

Kanaya comes back to life, sucks Karkat's blood, our girl is back in action and she has no mercy.

Equius realises Gamzee killed Nepeta.

Terezi, realising Gamzee is a big threat, lures him to a favourable location for her with plans to kill him. She does this on a public memo so everybody knows where she is and where he's planning to be.

On his way to Terezi's planet, Gamzee runs into Feferi and she fights him and gets killed. Sollux and Eridan learn this right away.

As Gamzee arrives at Terezi's trap, Vriska and Equius arrive pretty much at the same time. Terezi fights Gamzee and dies.

Immediately after, Vriska and Equius try to defeat him. Vriska might not be going for the kill straightaway, but Equius 100% is.

Gamzee kills Equius, which makes Vriska see it's to the death. Kanaya and Eridan (armed with a science wand Kanaya gave him for other reasons at some point) arrive, but fail to put a dent in him. Vriska manages to stay alive for longer, maybe Kanaya does too with her speed, but Eridan dies.

Sollux arrives, and it's a 3v1 with Vriska, Kanaya, and Sollux versus Gamzee. Kanaya dies, and then Solluz, and then Kanaya again, and then Vriska.

Aradia arrives to find Gamzee distracted by scrawling over the book, and as he finishes the last character on the last page, she kills him.

I don't know which one is more realistic or where the actual event lies in between them, but those are kind of the upper and lower bounds I feel like there are for what 'Gamzee flipped out and killed everyone' could mean in that timeline. And incidentally, if anybody wants to write those up as fanfics I'll absolutely read them lol

Sorry for the pages of text, just thought it was an interesting thing to note: we don't know how Gamzee killed everybody! Thought that was ripe for speculation.

Loving the liveblog, hope you're having a great day!

I love the level of detail you're put into this analysis.

There are some extremely evocative scenes here. A confrontation where he forces God Tier Vriska to retreat is something I'd love to see expounded upon - and I particularly like the image of an Aradiabot who stumbles upon a barely-coherent, HONKsick Gamzee, silently observes the bodies, and telekinetically snaps his neck.

Out of these two scenarios, I believe the second is probably closer to the truth. While Frenzied Gamzee is capable of being sneaky, he seems to generally prefer shock tactics and intimidation, so a bloody warpath seems more plausible than a stealth-focused approach.

[darling-i-read-it]

is it possible to either request a fic or hc whatever you feel like doing of trevor?

something kind of like that college request with love sick smitten nauseating trevor and his sweet little girlfriend who walks in to them planning a heist. she knows what he does but she doesn’t want a part of it and neither does trevor but she still supports him. he does anything in his power to keep her out of it. but does he get turned on seeing her hold his gun? yes. will he eventually try to get her warmed up to straddling him with a gun pointed at his neck while she rides him? absolutely.

but putting her in danger is something that makes him physically sick. maybe during the heist she somehow ends up in crosshairs, similar to what trevor did in north yankton when he put that gun to the woman’s head “if you move i’ll shoot her brains out”

but trevor just sees red like his special ability. killing anyone who angers or threatens his baby.

HI literally making me absolutely feral i hope you enjoy <3 <3 Trevor you're such a real one

tw for guns, violence, vague sexual descriptions, typical trevor stuff

Trevor fell in love with you because of your innocence. All the girls who loved him where like him, something similar in their hard gaze, the smell of alcohol on their breath. Not you. You were different.

he swore it was a good thing, he promised Ron and Wade that you were happy with him.

they never believed him. it was hard to believe Trevor on a good day

but they could see from the way you were with him that he was telling the truth. You would sit in his trailer, gently cleaning up without being invasive, laugh at his dumb jokes, call him cute. There is no one someone who didn't love Trevor would do all that

He was nauseating about you. He talked about you all the time, bragged endlessly, always had your name on the tip of his tongue.

"Yeah, I brought her out to dinner last night. She tried to drink me under the table but I had to bring her home," he would say, with heart eyes.

"She didn't make me take down my posters. Would Amanda do that for you Michael?"

"We had lots of fun yesterday. Don't worry Ron, I cleaned the couch. "

He loved that he had something in his life no one else did. You were his unicorn.

Obviously spending so much time with Trevor, it was easy to know what he did for a living. He didn't like to hide anything from you and he didn't like to hide his job in general

Trust that he would be honest about everything. Down to the last penny, he would tell you what he did and why he did it (even if his reasonings were always a little skewed)

You didn't want anything to do with it. You had no interest in going to jail and he perfectly respected and appreciated that. He liked having someone on the outside anyway

Plus, you were the person he could go to outside of all of that. He had plenty of friends in the business, he wanted something that was normal and just for him

that being said

Trevor does love a little bit of corruption. He has never said no to taking you out shooting.

"Just...like that," he muttered. He had his hands on top of yours, his body pressed against your back. You had one eye closed like it would help you aim the gun in your hand. You starred at the beer can on the stump, breathing in and out evenly, just like he had taught you. "Whenever you're ready doll."

You pulled the trigger. Your ears rang out. Trevor didn't believe in ear protection (or any protection for that matter). You missed, just barely.

"Am I getting better?" you asked, hopelessly. You had asked him to teach you to use a gun just in case someone came home while he wasn't there. He agreed. You needed to know how to defend yourself.

"Oh so good. Honestly better than most of the men I've worked with." He loved seeing a gun in your hand. He loved when you brandished it, talking like it wasn't a fully loaded weapon in your hand. He liked when it got a little close to him, making him twitch a bit.

But that's a whole different battle.

Other than that, you avoided all of his lifestyle things. No heists, no ride alongs. He wanted you as safe as humanly possible.

Naturally, if you were around, you were bound to walk into a heist planning without meaning to. You didn't recognize the concentrated look on Trevor's face as he starred at the wall, full of papers and lines and pictures. You had just been grabbing some groceries before coming back to Wade's cousins.

Michael Townley was there, his eyes trained on the wall as well.

"He's no good. We need someone who's done this before Trevor," Michael was saying. You slowly closed the door, approaching the wall. Trevor was sitting on the arm of the couch.

"And Frank is? I mean, I like the kid, don't get me wrong. But can he handle all that?" Trevor's sounded unenthused. He turned to look at Michael and saw you standing behind him, grocery bags in your hand. He stood up quickly. His sudden movements caused Michael to turn around. "Hey baby. You're back early."

"The other store I wanted to go to was closed," you explained. "What's all this?" You asked even though you knew the answer.

"Nothin'," he promised, approaching you. He grabbed a bag from your hand. "You grab beer?"

"Course."

"Atta girl." He helped you put things down on the kitchen counter. Michael gave you a nod in acknowledgment. You returned it with a thin lipped smile.

"Are you guys planning a heist?"

"No need to worry about that dollface," Trevor said. "We can finish this up later." He turned to look at Michael, eyes like daggers, daring him to defy. Michael nodded once. He knew what it was like to want to keep someone out of the danger.

"Yeah, no problem."

but the information stayed up there. You could look at it while you watched the TV, making sense of the ramblings. They'd be down by the docks.

Trevor ignored any questions you asked about it. You didn't want to know, he knew that. You were just curious.

The day of, he planned a full day. Heist at 9, lunch with you at 1. You would come grab him from a safe point, he made sure of it.

Then things went array. His timing had never been great and honestly, he probably should have made sure the safe point was completely safe. It was the exit area, the place where everyone was supposed to meet up when things went well. Everyone showed, all the goods were there...

they were followed

You were already there, waiting with your car, sitting on your phone

You saw everyone rolling up, tires screeching and people running

Guns were going off. You ducked your head below your steering wheel and freaked out silently

Someone was running towards the car, grabbing your drivers door, opening it up because you didn't bother leaving it locked. You didn't even think

Someone pulled you out of the car, tossing you on the ground. You saw little to nothing for a moment, eyes blacking out as you looked around the soon to be chaos

You stood up shakily and saw the man who had pushed you down. Someone completely foreign and honestly scary looking. The second you registered his face, it had been blasted off.

You screamed, almost falling over and scampering away

Someone had grabbed your arm, keeping you up

"Right here doll."

You knew the voice well and almost melted into Trevor's touch, a heavy sigh of relief leaving your lips. Even if everyone was still shooting, you were safe with Trevor. He'd never let anything happen to you.

He dragged out of the fire and placed you carefully behind a car.

"Stay here till I get you." He gave you a gun and said nothing else until he had turned around.

You peaked over the car. There were dozens of men pointing a gun at him. He looked untouchable, guns in both hands, face hard, eyes red.

"Now who wants to fucking try it? Huh?"

You had never seem him move so efficiently. It was like he couldn't get hurt at all. His vision had slowed and everything in his way was gone.

He didn't stop until the very last man was under his boot and a gun was through their temple.

Then he ignored all of his comrades to run to you, skidding on his knees to make sure you were alright.

"You alright baby? They hurt you? I'm so sorry you had to be here."

His voice was rushed and honest. He had you in his arms, breathing harshly. You held him tightly against you, breathing in the smell of his shitty cologne. You had never been so happy to see him.

[ashes-2-ashes57cba]

The Bad Batch: Specter

Episode 11: Devil's Deal

edited by: @ryleeeeeenn warnings: verbal argument, a really short chapter

Specter bit back a smile, watching as Omega scrunched her face while trying to practice her sign language. The girl was quick to understand but lacked finesse in her execution; still, Specter couldn’t ask for a better student.

“And… there! How’d I do?” the girl eagerly asked. Specter clicked her tongue.

“Much better than last time. But remember, it’s about how clearly you sign, not just about how fast,” she critiqued, adjusting Omega’s fingers as she held the last sign. “Alright, final check: introduce yourself.”

“But we already know her name’s Omega,” Wrecker said, oblivious to the lesson. Specter made a swatting motion at him before giving the girl her full attention. 

[Hello! My name is Omega], she signed. Specter grinned, seeing her practice come to fruition.

“Very good! Just keep at your vocabulary and alphabet, then I’ll check with you later,” she ruffled the girl’s hair. Hunter came in from the cockpit, clearly in a different mood than the girls. 

“So what did Cid say?” Echo asked him.

The Batch had just left Ord Mantell not too long ago, hauling about thirty crates of weapons ranging from blasters to grenades; Cid refused to tell them the location of their dropoff until they were far enough away and on a secure channel. And by the way Hunter refused to meet her gaze, Specter could tell she wouldn’t like where they were going. 

“Hunter?” she tried again. He took a breath.

“We’re heading to one of the moons of Ryloth to meet with a Twi’lek named Gobi.”

Wrecker, for once, went still, while Echo and Omega only sported confused expressions. Specter felt herself stand but wobble in place. Her heart churned with sorrow and anger. They were handing enough weapons for a small army over to the Twi’leks—her guilt would increase tenfold.

“Specter-” 

“Why did you say yes?” she interrupted him. ”Why would you put me in this position?”

“We don’t have much of a choice,” he shrugged. She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to take steadying breaths against the flood of memories. “Look, I’m sorry that we’re going to Ryloth, but we’re just doing a job.”

“That’s the problem! We’re doing nothing but a business transaction when you know very well of the promise I made!” she snapped.

“A promise you made,” he muttered, turning away and shaking his head. 

“We have a chance—a small chance—to help them just one time, and you can turn your back on them for money? You can turn your back on me?”

“Specter, we can’t help them,” Hunter said, simply, trying to de-escalate the situation.

“Can’t or won’t?” she replied in the same tone. He turned to meet her glare. 

“I don’t understand why you’re making such a big deal out of this.”

“Oh, that is rich coming from you. You know very well why I’m upset.”

“Do I? Remind me!”

“Because you’re making me go back to the place you forced me to abandon-”

“I had to pull you out to keep you fit for battle! We’re on a different mission. And as the leader of this group, need I remind you that we need to follow the orders of our job despite whatever personal-”

“Need I remind you that Crosshair would say the exact same thing? Follow orders and turn a blind eye?” Specter countered in a low voice, taking a step.

For a moment, palpable silence had filled the cabin. Omega opened her mouth to say something, but Wrecker shook his head, knowing it wouldn’t help. Specter’s gaze was fiery, Hunter bared his teeth, both of them caught their breath after the heated exchange: but it was far from over. 

“How dare you bring us—me—here, despite knowing what happened to us last time,” she seethed, taking another step closer.

“As the sergeant of this squad, I have the final say in what jobs we do or do not take,” he growled, trying to keep himself calm and controlled.

“We aren’t in the military anymore!” Specter cried. 

“They all trust me to lead them!” Hunter’s control was gone; he gestured wildly to the rest of the squad in the cabin.

“Do they? Good for them. I don’t anymore!” Specter shouted, now in his face.

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

They both marched off to opposite ends of the ship; Hunter holed up in the rear gun while Specter sat down hard in the co-pilot’s chair in the cockpit. Tech gaped at her until she shot him a fiery glare: he turned back to the viewport, and she turned her back to him. Back in the main hold, Omega had covered her mouth, and Wrecker had covered his ears. Echo had simply remained as still as he could.

“What… what just happened?” Omega asked quietly, more confused and concerned than scared.

“I have never, ever seen them go at it like that before,” Wrecker said, almost more shaken up than Omega. “That came outta nowhere.” 

“What was she talking about?” Echo quietly asked. Wrecker grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck.

“It’s not for me to tell…” he said. Echo sighed, wondering if his desire to contribute more to causes against the Empire had rubbed off on her. But for now, he just hoped they would be able to complete the job without killing each other. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, the Marauder arrived with no further incident; Specter helped Tech land while Hunter finally emerged from the rear gun. He caught the gazes of Wrecker and Echo, awkwardly clearing his throat and putting on his helmet, feeling a little guilty that they were caught up in the midst of his fight with Specter. 

Specter appeared shortly after, still looking angry but tired as well—she shoved her helmet on. Hunter quietly sighed and opened the door, stepping out onto the planetoid, Wrecker hoisted a crate over his shoulder and dragged the other one.

“Stay on the ship, hun,” Specter instructed Omega as gently as she could. The girl nodded and sat on the steps, watching as her teammates went forward toward three Twi’leks. 

“Are you Gobi? Cid sent us,” Hunter greeted. The blue-skinned male stepped forward.

“Along with three dozen blasters and a case of thermal detonators,” Tech added. 

“Let’s see them,” Gobi said. Tech and Echo knelt down to reveal the contents of the boxes. Specter noticed one of them—a green-skinned girl, probably about 10 years old—step out of line and make her way toward the Marauder with wonder in her eyes. She noticed Hunter following the girl as well. 

“What type of ship is this?” the young Twi’lek asked Omega.

“A modified Omicron-class attack shuttle,” she answered.

“Can I have a look inside?” Omega eyed the girl.

“Hunter, can she come aboard?” she asked. Hunter nodded in approval. Despite all that had happened earlier, Specter was happy to see Omega making a friend, but it didn’t stop her from worrying. Standing off to the side, she leaned toward the other Twi’lek woman and spoke to her in Twi’leki.

“Tell me, what are the Imperial forces like down there?” she asked in hushed tones. The woman seemed surprised she spoke her language but answered anyway.

“Not good. Senator Orn Free Taa and Cham Syndulla welcome them into a new era of peace. He’s convinced everyone to lay down our weapons. We are defenseless; they occupy the mines and the capital,” she reported.

“And what of your people? And the clones?” Specter pressed.

“There is unease among us, but the clones haven’t done anything. It’s the man that leads them I’m worried about,” she said, almost shivering. Specter contemplated the news; she was more worried that Syndulla wasn’t fighting back, but she hoped things would remain status quo at least. 

“Thank you. I would have thought Syndulla would be the one amassing another defense militia,” she admitted. The Twi’lek shrugged.

“Hard to say. He’s tired of fighting. His wife is the one more suspicious of the Empire,” she said before turning back to Gobi and the others. 

“It’s a start,” he said, “have Cid contact me when she has more to sell.” He handed the case of credits to Hunter; whether either of them heard her conversation was not something Specter particularly cared about. 

“Building an arsenal attracts attention. You better know what you’re getting into,” Hunter commented. Specter scoffed and rolled her eyes.

Now he cares, she thought to herself. Wrecker noticed her demeanor and nudged her a little. She quickly schooled her expression into what she hoped looked more neutral. 

“We don’t have a choice,” Gobi said with a sigh. “Hera, we’re leaving,” he called, taking a crate and dragging it back to their ship with the other Twi’lek woman. The two girls came forward out of the ship.

“Thanks for the tour,” said Hera.

“Anytime,” Omega nodded with a smile. The girls waved goodbye before Hera ran back to her ship. “Good luck!”

“Make a new friend?” Hunter asked. 

“She’s kind of strange. I like her,” the girl replied with a smile. “Did you know flying’s about a feeling?” she added before trotting back to the ship. The Batch eyed her, quizzically.

“What ‘feeling’?” Tech wondered.

“The only thing I usually feel when I fly is Tech glaring at me,” Specter shrugged. Her brother shot her a look as they followed the group back on board. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She and Hunter still did not speak to each other, even after they had taken off and set themselves on a drifting course back to Ord Mantell. Tech and Echo looked at each other from the pilot-copilot seats, eyeing Specter, who quietly sulked in the seat behind Echo. She was hugging her knees close, staring off into the controls. Neither of them thought her standoff with Hunter would last this long. Echo sighed quietly and gave a look to Tech, silently telling him to leave the cockpit so he could talk to her. He nodded and left Echo and Specter alone.

“So, what did that Twi’lek say?” he started. Specter came back into focus, letting her legs down.

“She said that Cham Syndulla was able to convince everyone to lay down their weapons and let the clone army protect them. He and Senator Orn Free Taa are convinced it’s a new time of peace. But they’re defenseless,” she said almost robotically. “She’s not so worried about the clones themselves but rather the man currently leading them.” Echo hummed in response before turning to face her. 

“Why is this really bothering you?” he asked, leaning in close. She crumbled under his scrutinous gaze and gave him an answer… one she dreaded.

“Sometime before we had rescued you, we were dispatched on Ryloth to help cover a skirmish. It was rough,” Specter started to explain, resting her elbows on her knees. “Hunter and I were evacuating a village while Tech, Crosshair, and Wrecker tried to stave off the oncoming droids. I was sidetracked with getting a family to cover when I-” she paused to wipe her face, “I lost track of the kids from the school. When I finally had the time, I tried to go back and find them. I was so convinced that they were right there in the school shed, but Hunter had to physically restrain me to keep me from going back in. And I thought I could hear a scream…”

“Oh, Specter,” Echo sympathized, putting his hand on her shoulder as she started to quietly cry. He now understood why she was so angry at Hunter; he was sure that if he were in the same situation, he would be too. But at the same time, he understood Hunter’s side; it was his duty to fulfill the mission, yes, but also to protect his squad. Specter sniffed back tears and wiped her face again, sitting up straight. 

“I can’t look at Ryloth and forget what happened when I didn’t do enough,” Specter’s voice was shaky, fighting back more tears, “and I promised myself I would not make that same mistake again. Not here.”

She couldn’t forget how hard she had cried out. Hunter had to hold her back and tell her over and over that there was nothing more they could do, and that they had to leave. She knew that even though they never talked about it, the sound of her screams echoed in their heads for days after they had left the planet. 

Echo sat back in his seat, letting her finish processing. He had no idea she had such a past and couldn’t fathom the guilt she still harbored or how she managed to hide it. 

“I think the worst part,” she continued, “is hearing Hunter so easily shut down the idea of helping them—without any remorse—and then saying how he’s such a trusted leader. That crap hurt, and it reminded me… reminded me of…”

“Crosshair,” Echo finished for her again. She nodded, hugging her knees again. Unbeknownst to the both of them, Hunter was listening from the main hold, his heightened senses picking up their hushed tones. 

“This is the longest we’ve ever been apart.” She ran her hand over the back of her neck; there, a matching tattoo of a shared phrase between her and Crosshair. ‘Strike hard’, his read. ‘Aim true’, said hers. “Maybe I’m just looking to find him—his trace, his presence—anywhere.”

“Well, I can certainly relate when it comes to missing your brothers,” he muttered. 

“Your twin, right?” she looked up at him. He nodded, solemn and missing him.

“Yeah. Fives and I were practically inseparable. I don’t think I can name a mission where we were ever apart. And like you said, I’m finding parts of his presence in all of you,” Echo reminisced. 

“He knew about Order 66, didn’t he?” asked Specter, although it sounded more like a statement. Echo looked at her, surprised she knew. “I overheard the Coruscant Guard once, talking about having to shoot down some delusional clone—I’m sorry,” she stopped herself, not wanting to stir up any more sad memories. 

“It’s alright. He did know about it, but it was after I had already ‘died’,” he finished, almost smiling at the ironic misfortune. Silence passed—more comfortable than when Hunter and Specter had fought—before he spoke again. “Waking up, and finding out that he was gone hurt more than anything Watt Tambor did to me. Even after Rex told me everything, I never got closure; and while the Batch has become my new family…” Now Echo was at a loss for words.

“You still feel like part of you is missing,” she finished for him, reaching over and placing a hand on his shoulder. “I used to think Crosshair and I were so close, that if one of us got hurt, the other would feel it,” she gave his shoulder a squeeze before bringing it back to herself. “But back on Bracca, he was caught in that engine blast… and I didn’t feel anything. It feels like I’ve lost touch with him completely; I don’t know if he’s okay or if he’s going to be okay. And worst of all, I still feel guilty for hating him so much.” Specter sounded angry, but Echo could see the frustrated hurt on her face. He smiled to himself.

“You know, you’re just as stubborn as Crosshair.” A smirk flashed across her face. 

“Oh, please. My stubbornness for hating him does not compare to Crosshair. He was once so mad at me, that when I told him to pack for a snow planet, he didn’t and insisted he was fine even though he was on the verge of hypothermia,” Specter giggled. Echo snorted. 

“Fives was pretty grounded in his ways too. One time he mistook salt for sugar, and when he put it in his drink, he told us it tasted good,” he was already laughing with Specter by the time he finished his sentence. 

Hunter could hear them, and while it felt good to hear her laugh after how angry they had been with each other, he was still upset with her. And he knew she would be upset with him too; that fact was made obvious when she appeared from the cockpit, her smile immediately dropping into a scowl, and shoved past him to lay on her rack. The corner of his mouth flickered into a frown, glaring as she watched her pass. It would be a while before either of them apologized, so the rest of the Bad Batch would have to deal with the tension until they worked it out. Whenever that would be. 

Sorry this was a short chapter and I'm SO sorry Specter and Hunter had a fight. It was so hard for me to write I didn't want them to be mad at each other T^T

[that-vigilante-piedpiper]

For vigilante!Reo, I'm imagining that Reo would only use ranged weapons as support for Piper (so like Piper is in the fray of things with his pipes/staff and Reo is just like standing on a nearby rooftop sniping with like a crossbow)

Also crooks are shit at names so I'm imagining something like "Crossfire" or "Crosshairs"

“Watch your six, damnit!” Reo shouts from above, reloading his crossbow with a blunt, taser-tipped bolt and firing. It slams into the back of the villain below him.

“That’s what I’ve got you for!” Piper calls up at the older teen. He has the audacity to not so much as glance behind him as the villain seizes up and collapses.

Reo’s stationed on the building’s roof just above where Izuku’d been fighting. His staff glints in the darkness as he strikes a triumphant pose. Reo yanks the night vision goggles off his face. “You can’t keep relying on me like that! I might not always be here to help!” He yells angrily.

Izuku’s laugh carries up from the alley. “I know, I know~” he chuckles, brushing it off.

Reo huffs, forcing himself to release the tension in his shoulders. He never would’ve been tempted into vigilantism if he’d known it’d only make Izuku more careless.

“You’re friend’s right,” a voice laughs darkly from behind Reo, ringing loudly in the night air. There’s a sharp pain in his shoulder as his arm is grabbed and forcefully wrenched behind his back. His face twists and Reo lets out a grunt of pain.

Izuku looks up with wide, fear filled eyes. “Counterbalance!” He can’t quite see what’s happening from where he is, but he can sense the sudden danger Reo’s been cast into as he rushes towards the nearest fire escape.

The villain’s attention wavers towards Izuku as the crossbow slips from Reo’s grasp. It clatters loudly against the roof. She pushes Reo closer to the ledge to get a better eye on Izuku’s location. “Stay where you are if you want your friend here alive!” She calls, peeking over the side of the building as Izuku grinds to a halt on the fire escape stairs. The pounding echo of his his boots fall silent.

Izuku’s quiet for a moment, only the sound of his heavy breathing audible from up above. “What do you want.”

“What do I want?” The woman asks, pushing Reo’s arm further up his back until a cry of pain forces it’s way through his lips.

“Please!” Izuku cries.

Izuku’s fully distracted her now. Reo can tell by the way her grip loosens around his forearm. He grits his teeth, pinching his eyes shut before using his free hand to sneak one of the crossbow bolts from the quiver at his hip.

“I want you to turn yourselves over to the police.” The smile in the woman’s voice is evident. “Killing you would put a bounty on my head, but I’d be willing to accept it if my colleagues and I are able to return to business as usual. If you turn yourselves in, however, it’d yield slightly better results.”

Reo’s grip tightens around the arrow before driving it into the thigh of the woman behind him. Electricity crackles up her leg and she cries out, knee giving way beneath her. She releases him and Reo jerks away with a hiss of pain as his right arm returns to dangle limply at his side.

She does her best to stumble back up, desperately spitting curses as she goes.

Izuku shouts something incomprehensible from below before resuming his mad dash up the fire escape.

Reo draws one of his newly acquired weapons. He aims it one armed at the woman and she freezes, falling silence and giving up all attempts to push herself back up.

Izuku finally claws his way over the roof’s ledge on all fours. His eyes widen upon seeing the weapon in Reo’s hand. “Is that a fucking gun?!” Izuku chokes.

Reo keeps his aim steady despite the trembling in his legs. “Killing you would put a bounty on my head,” he mocks, heart beating uncomfortably fast in his chest, “but I’d be willing to accept it if my colleague and I get to go home tonight.” He glances over at Izuku, jerking his head towards the villain as a silent signal to cuff her. “Turning you in, however,” he quips, “will yield slightly better results.”

[This was super fun to write!! Great idea anon, vigilante!reo my beloved 🤩🤩 also yes I gave Reo what I had originally planned to make Izuku’s, I think it fits him in a way it never really did fit Izuku considering Reo’s helping ‘balance him out’. 🤩🤩🤩]

[ahsokasleftbicep]

Name and Soul: Chapter 4

Alright, let's get this angst moving!! Hope you enjoy it!

@mqgriett @darkangel4121 @thelambandthewolffe @maulscrosshair @trash-dino-5000 @lightning-wolffe @killtherandomness @shadowwing1324

Crosshair x F! reader

Word Count: 2017

Warnings: SPOILERS for episode 4, Tarkin being awful, Rampart being ugh, Sad Crosshair, internal conflict, Hunter and reader tensions, injury, a single curse word

The firing range was dark and empty, just how he liked it. Crosshair moved from his crouched position to his stomach, reloading his weapon and taking aim at the practice droids. Bang. Bang. The droids drop, sending a hollow thud throughout the room. He knew Tarkin was watching, he always did. So did Nala Se. They talked. Anytime Crosshair looked up at the observation room, he saw the two talking. Probably about her. Private L/N. His head hurt, well the right side did. Like a constant headache, it never went away. It was only worse when he was around the regs. Or his squad. They annoyed him. The man paused his training and then stood up, packing his gear. I need to get the mission done. I need to find them. Find her. Kill them. Take her. Easy enough… right. Every time he thought about her, that little metal ring felt heavier than usual. Oh well.

--

“You be careful okay? Stay with Hunter and Echo, look but don’t touch. Got it?” You brushed off some dust from Omega’s shirt.

“Yep! I got it!” The girl smiled at you before walking over to Echo.

Things had gotten much more complicated over the last few days. There were no more rations and the ship was on a wanted list. These sort of situations could be handled normally, but with Omega, you all had to think of the best way to keep her safe. Some tensions had been growing also, between you and Hunter, everyone felt it. You knew that the Sergeant had good intentions, but he had yet to acknowledge anything that happened on Kamino. With Crosshair. Wrecker tried to tell you that it was how he hid it, but it still irked you. Hunter had been just as devastated as you, and he kept it all in. You drove the past few days from your mind, looking at Echo in his getup.

“Looking good Echo.”

The man raises his hands and turns in a circle. “I know.” The two of you look at each other before breaking out in chuckles.

“Does the headpiece feel okay? Any recalibrations before you guys head out?” You take a quick look at the controls.

“Feels good so far, I think it’s fine.”

The sergeant came over from talking to the Sullustan dock master, securing his pack.

“Let’s head out.”

“Do you have any credits left after paying him off?”

“I have enough to get what we need.”

“Well, be careful.” You speak monotonically.

“Will do.” The two men and Omega start walking towards the market.

You walk towards the ship, towards Tech and Wrecker.

“Why do they get to go sightseeing again?” Wrecker lifts a large metal piece away so Tech can scramble the ship's signature.

You move out of his way, removing your top armor to help Tech with the ship. “It’s a supply mission. And besides, it’s not the first time we’ve seen this planet.”

Tech cleared his throat. “Uh Y/N? Can you get this small piece in here?... Please.”

“Yes!” You walk up to the ship, stepping up on a box and reaching out for the part. “Got it!”

“Much appreciated.” Tech fixes his goggles before heading back towards the inverters.

“Do you need anything else at the moment?”

“I don’t believe so, but thank you Y/N.”

--

“Sir? You asked for me.” Rampart walked into Tarkin's office.

“Ah Rampart, yes I did.” Tarkin looked up from a datapad. He put the device down and folded his hands.

“Is everything okay sir?”

“Yes, it is. I was curious about your progress on Private L/N’s file.”

The vice admiral sat down. “I have found a little more about her life before the Clone Wars. Nothing that we can use to our advantage yet. She has no family; they were killed in a raid in her village. A civil war broke out shortly after and she was drafted. She got into the Academy based on skill and exceeded in marksmanship among other things. GAR offered her a job when the war started, she joined Clone Force 99 shortly after.”

Tarkin listened and hummed, “Has there been any luck in finding her? Or the clones.”

“No, L/N’s training serves her and the clones well. No sightings nor upsets have been reported.”

Tarkin stands and looks through the glass window. “Very well then. Maintain your search. As I said, L/N’s skills will be useful to your project. Once you find something, send the sniper out to retrieve her.”

“Understood sir.” Rampart rose and walked out. I will find you, L/N. Whether you like it or not.

--

“Wrecker, Tech, Echo, Y/N. I lost Omega. Someone attacked us.” Hunter’s voice comes out scratchy through the comm-link. Your head shot up looking between Tech and Wrecker.

“Somebody who?” Wrecker responded.

“A woman. Highly trained. She’s after the kid.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that.” Wrecker grabs his helmet, you grab your rifle and run off, the large man following behind.

“Y/N, your armor-.” Tech called out but you were already gone.

You and Wrecker run through the streets.

“I have eyes on Omega, she’s in the maintenance tunnels. Head northwest, at 155. And hurry, she’s got company.” “Wrecker you take that way, I’ll come from the back.” You say as you approach the street.

“Got it.”

You run through the street, hitting a couple of people, not that you cared about being polite at the moment.

“Wrecker, come in?” Silence. “Wrecker. Do you copy?”

“I do not see Wrecker, but Omega is hanging from a tower in the skyway.”

“Oh no.” You breathe out, trying to run faster.

Some speeder pulls up next to you. “Y/N! Get on!” It was Hunter, he held his hand out.

You grip his arm and pull yourself up. “I got the woman, you get Omega.”

Hunter speeds up, and you crouch on the back seat.

“Where’s your armor?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, that makes me feel better. I’m not losing another member of my team.”

“We don’t have time for this, Hunter.”

“He-.”

“Stop! He’s not dead, he hasn’t disappeared. So stop acting like Crosshair just vanished.” You raise your voice. “Focus on Omega.”

You approach the tower only to see Omega fall into a shipping vessel. The woman jumps in afterward. The woman fires at the speeder, but Hunter swerves out of the way. A moment later the back of the vessel starts tilting, taking the woman… and Omega along with it. The woman falls onto another ship. Omega dangles on a strap, way too far above the ground. Hunter is about to grab her-

‘You guys! Look out!” The woman rams into the speeder, tossing you off and sending Hunter in a spin.

“Y/N!”

You’re able to grab onto the back of her ship, pulling yourself up. The woman grabs her weapon but you knock it out of her hand. She kicks you in the stomach before you slam her into the controls of the ship. She kicks back before grabbing a smaller blaster, and then your shoulder starts to burn. Your right shoulder is shot, the skin burned and irritated. Shit. You stumble back.

“Y/N!” You hear two voices at once, one being Omega.

“It’s okay, just stay there.”

The ship starts to shake, when you look behind you, you see that Hunter shot out one of the thrusters. This throws off your balance and you fall over the edge, gripping the end with your good arm.

“Y/N! You need to drop!” You see Hunter hold up a pyro denton. You look around you, seeing a tarp below you, covering some stand.

“Throw it now! I’ll be okay!” You come just above the tarp and let go. You land on the cover before connecting with the ground. The ship explodes and not a moment later, Hunter comes up and puts you on the bike, with Omega.

“Y/N! Are you okay?” The girl looks at your shoulder and winces.

“I’m fine, this isn’t the worst injury I’ve gotten.” Despite the wound being mostly cauterized, the shock and minor blood loss made you woozy. Everything just faded out. Someone picked you up, probably Hunter.

“We need to go. Now. Get a medkit.”

--

You woke up with a groan, your shoulder was sore and bandaged in a sling. You threw your legs over your bed and walked out into the common area.

“What did I miss?”

Omega jumped up and ran to you. “Y/n, are you okay? You’re going to be okay right? You got hit and then-”

“Omega.” You hug her. “I’m okay, it takes a little more than a blaster wound to take me down.”

The girl hugs you back, relieved. The others gathered around, Hunter looked pissed.

“Did we find out who that woman was?”

“Bounty hunter, based on her skills.” Hunter returned, his arms crossing over his chest.

“Makes sense. And she's after Omega.” You pat the girl on the head. “We need to be more careful.”

Everyone nods and heads back to the cockpit, except Hunter.

“Y/N.”

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t need the lecture, Hunter.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what do you mean?” You bite back, adjusting your sling.

“Look, I know you’re upset about Kamino, and what happened with Crosshair-”

“No, I’m upset that out of everyone on this ship, you are the only one who has yet to acknowledge him. When Wrecker mentioned Crosshair, you shut it down.” You stood up moving closer to the sergeant. “I know you’re hurting just as badly, but the longer we leave him on Kamino the worse it’s going to get.”

“We’ll get him back-”

“When we stop running, maybe start planning. That’s a start.” You turn towards your room, your eyes brimming with tears. “If you don’t come up with something, and fast. I will. And I will do it alone if I have to. I am not going to leave my husband there to rot and be Tarkin’s attack dog.”

--

“CT-9904. What is your experience with Private L/N? Is she reliable?” Tarkin asked the gray-haired man.

“Yes, her skills were helpful on missions.” The man tensed, his mind racing. What’s he got planned for her? Don’t listen to him! Leave Y/N alone! Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP! FOCUS!

“When you bring her back, you will be in charge of training her after her conditioning. From there, she will become a part of your squad. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.” The clone was dismissed and walked past Rampart. He caught a glimpse of a file, your file, on his datapad. Why is everyone so interested in her? It’s not like she’ll come willingly, she’s a traitor. I miss her. She LEFT me. She loves me. No, she doesn’t. She couldn’t.

He sat on his bunk, thankfully the barracks were empty. Images flashed in his head, of you, your laugh, your smile. He grabbed his head and fell to his knees, shaking. Hot tears fell from his eyes as he wept to the empty room.

--

“Y/N?” Omega peeks through your door. You are cleaning your rifle. “Should you be doing that?”

You chuckle, “Yes, but it’s taking a little longer than usual… Do you want to give me a hand?”

The girl perks up, “Really?”

“Yeah, consider it your first lesson on taking care of your weapon.” You move over to make room for Omega.

“Where do I start?” The girl picks up a rag and looks at you lost.

“Here, see that little gear right there? That’s one of the most important parts. If you don’t take care of it, the rifle can jam…”

You repeated the same words that Crosshair said to you, minus the sarcasm and occasional curse. Word for word of what he said came out of your mouth as if you traded places. For a moment, it felt like he was right there with you. You thought you heard someone crying. Someone weeping. Like they were right there with you.

[mugichaaaa]

Bad Batch Analysis

So Bad Batch release date doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon so here is my analysis on the bad batch trailer that no one asked for, but do I care? Lowkey yeah but… there is barely any bad batch stuff so here we are. 

spoilers to bad batch trailer

==

So the first thing I see about the Trailer is this scene right here: Where the bad batch is coming out of there ship at night on a planet that looks like Falucia. I have a feeling this will be one of the earlier episodes in the season since Echo has a different armor than the one we see later in the trailer. This is the only time during the trailer where we ever see this planet. So I think this is going to be either half an episode or just one episode like a filler episode

==

Next thing I notice is that Hunter is fighting a zygerrian and a little later we see Tech and Wrecker catching up with Hunter.

 It makes me wonder where is Echo and Crosshair? Shouldn’t they be there fighting alongside them? But my theory is that later on in the trailer around 0:36 we see Echo dawn new armor. 

I believe Crosshair is with Echo during this sequence as like a battle buddy. What is a battle buddy? A battle buddy is where someone is assigned to another and they are both expected to protect and assist each other. Dose the GAR follow the same system as the US military? I don’t know, but it would make sense for Crosshair to be with Echo to make sure he’s okay and doesn’t get in trouble. 

==

Another thing I notice is the snowy planet that was seen quite a lot in the trailer. First time we see anything on the snowy planet is at 0:18 where we see clones/stormtroopers and an explosion. 

Was the explosion caused by the batchers? Or was that the empire’s doing? Then at 0:23 we see Wrecker jumping down while what looks like a droid falling off a cliff. We don’t get a good look at the droid but it kind of looks like a modified model of the type II loadlifter droid that we see in season 7 (the one Trace and Ahsoka had to chase down). We get a good amount of  scenes of this snowy planet and crosshair so maybe this might be like a character Arc for Crosshair. 

==

In this scene you would think it would be like all batchers but in reality the one in the back is Echo not Crosshair. Crosshair is nowhere to be seen in this scene, so there are really only two things that come to mind: 1) Crosshair is somewhere else farther away ready to fire, since some may or may not know but sniper rifles work really well if it’s in long range that’s why it's a long range weapon. Or 2) he’s one of the purge troopers, I don’t really know about this idea since we got like barely anything on the purge troopers in the trailer. 

==

We get our first appearance of all the purge troopers, or at least what we see right now, now many people are saying the one in the middle is either Crosshair or Cody. Now I don’t really think the middle one is Cody but I do think that one of them IS Cody but i don’t really know who or how that would work. 

Let’s start off with Crosshair because honestly I thought this was Crosshair at first but a little bit more research would tell me otherwise. So in the scene where we first see the purge troopers, there is one leading the pack who looks just like Crosshair, but is it truly Crosshair? well we really don’t know until the show comes out, but we can only guess. So let's start off with the equipment we know of. Crosshair has a very special customized rifle, which is the 773 firepuncher rifle. These rifles dose seem to be a rarity in the galaxy as we only seen two (maybe now 3) people ever use the 773 firepuncher rifle, one is our lovely asshat of a sniper Crosshair, one is Azmorigan’s henchmen, and maybe now the new purge trooper. 

Now this wouldn’t immediately point to Crosshair being the purge trooper, since we still  haven’t fully analyzed the equipment that the purge trooper has. Something that a friend pointed out was that the purge trooper and crosshair have a DC-17 hand blaster. While I was rewatching it again I noticed that Crosshair has one DC-17 hand blaster on his left thigh and our lovely friend the Purge trooper also has a DC-17 hand blaster on his left thigh as well. Now all of this might be some weird coincidence or maybe that the GAR gives all their snipers a 773 firepuncher rifle and a DC-17 hand blaster that goes on the left thigh. but what I have said doesn’t work because we only know two cannon people who are seen with the 773 firepuncher and a DC-17 hand blaster. GAR does have clone snipers, and those clones who are snipers are given a DC-15x sniper rifle not the fire puncher, it seems to be the standard for clone snipers. After all I said the equipment can be completely coincidental. Now for the armor, the armor looks like Crosshair but is it really Crosshair? Yes and maybe no, I have seen people like to point out the Helmet. Yes the helmet looks the same but isn’t really Crosshairs. The Helmet to me looks like the phase II helmet that Wolffe and Rex wear. The visor looks somewhat the same as both Crosshair and the Purge Trooper has a thin visor, but  I looked a little more into it and the visor looks like Echo’s. The coincidence that Crosshair and the Purge trooper have the same equipment and similarities in the armor could possibly lead to Crosshair being the new purge trooper but I have a feeling that Crosshair is not the purge trooper and let me explain that as well. 

Now I’m going to go off on a little theory so bear with me as I barely have any evidence for this and this is all going off my gut. So we know elite squads exist, we have of course Clone force 99/Bad Batch, Delta and Omega Squad, and Foxtrot group. Now I’m going to focus a little more on the Bad Batch and Delta squad. So both Delta squad and Bad Batch have skilled snipers Sev and Crosshair. In Legends Sev stood out for being amazing at Ambush training and his ability to work with a Sniper rifle, while we barely know anything about Crosshair’s life on Kamino we can only expect something like that. From what we got from Legends and Cannon both Crosshair and Sev are both highly respected snipers in the GAR. So it only makes sense when one is MIA and the other one deserted from the Empire they would want to make a clone or human be the next best sniper in the GAR or now Empire. I’m thinking they would most likely use the exact same equipment as Crosshair to match the snipers skills which can explain the coincidence of Crosshair and the purge trooper having the same weapon. Now is this highly likely? Most likely no but it would be cool for Delta squad to be mentioned.

Since we mentioned Delta squad I think there may be a possibility that the purge troopers we see in the trailer are Delta squad. Now there is like Zero evidence for this being true but in legends Delta squad would go on and work for the empire hunting down surviving Jedi, jedi sympathizers, and Clone deserters now which elite squad do we know of that deserted the empire??  So to entertain this idea I wanted to see which trooper from the purge trooper squad could be from Delta squad. 

Now the flame purge trooper could be Scorch since during his days on Kamino he was really good with explosives, soooo explosive...flames sounds like something scorch might like. Now Boss and Fixer are harder to point out since the three other purge troopers don't really scream Boss or Fixer. So I'm just gonna assign them to these two. Now the sniper? In legends the Empire replaced Sev with another trooper but I have zero idea what that trooper is like so the sniper is up in the air. 

==

Omg my wife Fennac shand, I believe in Fennac Shand supremacy. So Fennac Shand is in the bad batch most likely to tie her to other media  and not just the Mandolorian. The area she’s in is very ominous and there really isn’t much to go off of. The fog in the background might indicate either she was just in a fight and she is at a standstill or it could be just how the building is very foggy. I also believe she might be tied into the mining facility we see in the trailer, as Fennec is also seen looking away where she seems to be in the mining facility as well.

==

I’m so confused on who that is, I want to say Crosshair because I love him but the hand blaster is on the wrong side of the thigh as that is the right thigh not the left. Same excuse for the purge trooper. So like the next best thing I can think of is that “this is definitely someone who is not from the bad batch and not from the squad of purge troopers but definitely has clone armor” so what do those my mind go to? Clone commanders. Now this could be a clone commander that we know or a clone commander we don’t know/barely heard of. The reason why my mind went to clone commanders is because we know a lot about clone commanders that are alive but barely any arc troopers that are alive and would align themselves with the empire. Plus the DC-17 hand blaster is pretty much a staple to all clone commanders. Due to the lighting I can’t 100% say that it’s Rex without his Kama because of his hand guards, but I can 100% confirm that that’s not anyone from Bad Batch or the Purge trooper squad. 

==

We see an explosion from what looks like a damaged ship with the purge trooper with the sniper rifle looking on, I believe this scene and the scene at 1:09 are connected to each other somehow.

 The reason why I think they are somehow connected is by how the sniper purge trooper is watching/escaping the explosion. How did I know that this was the purge trooper and not crosshair? Well at 1:00 we can see the sniper look at the explosion and if you enhance the brightness I can’t see the little red stick thingy Crosshair has on his left shoulder. Same thing can be true about 1:09 as I clearly can’t see anything that can identify Crosshair as there is no red stick thingy on his left shoulder. 

Now I’m going to call this segment cool things I saw on the trailer

Okay most of these are tech related because he just got really nice scenes on the trailer

==

Tech just looks so bored when the Emperor is talking. Like you see Hunter and Wrecker standing in attention because that’s the emperor you gotta show him respect, and there's tech who just likes “yeah yeah yeah cool, look at how cool my datapad is I think it’s amazing” 

==

Let's play spot Bad Batch 

There they are! I feel like this shows that even though the Bad Batch are unique and different from the clone army they are still seen the same way in the eyes of the empire, a tool for a bigger plot to destroy the jedi (which already happened). 

==

I always thought this scene was cool every single time I watched them. Crosshair got that one shot one kill… well more like one shot three kills. 

==

Wrecker punching Tech arm is something I thought was funny, because it’s like Tech is clearly worried about something else and Wrecker comes in going “yeah bro!”. 

Look at his face, he looks so done 

==

I also noticed that the Havoc Marauder has guns at the back of the ship. I don’t know why I didn’t think the Havoc Marauder didn’t have guns on the back. I just thought Tech was that good of a pilot to dodge all of those blaster fires. 

==

I don’t know why this scene was so heartwarming to me. I think it’s just tech looking up at  hunter probably telling him something important about their mission or the planet they're on that warms my heart. 

==

I love this scene, Tech showing off his technical skills is amazing. I bet it’s like BD’s splice ability where BD can easily hack a droid when it’s almost down.

==

and that’s that, thank you all who have read this far! I hope I was able to clearly put my thoughts out there. Let’s hope that we receive some news about the Bad Batch show soon! If there’s anything you want add on please type down below I would love to read what everyone else has to say! 

[i-like-plan-m]

the wind on another star

[On Ao3]

Lan Zhan wondered if pirates, of all things, were going to succeed where dozens of far superior fighters had tried and failed to kill him before.

The wide open void of space mocked him. Millions of escape routes within sight, and all worthless to him with a sabotaged hyperdrive and navigation system. The Hanguang-Jun was stranded in the middle of nowhere and caught in the crosshairs of a rather established band of mercenaries who doubled as pirates when they were between paid jobs.

Lan Zhan stood at the helm of his wounded starship and watched the empty escape pods drift away with so much fury he half expected them to explode.

Su She had conned his way onto Lan Zhan’s ship, hacked the navigation controls to drop them out of hyperspace and straight into the heart of a company of heavily armed mercenaries, and taken the only escape pod that he hadn’t already ejected into space.

Lan Zhan’s crew was trapped. Lan Zhan was trapped-- his ship’s weapon systems were mostly offline, brought partially back to life only by Lan Jingyi’s sheer desperation and skill. It wasn’t nearly enough to keep a dozen fighter planes and two cruisers at bay.

“Ambush,” Mianmian said tightly from beside him. “This was carefully planned, Captain.”

“What did we ever do to piss off these guys?” Lan Jingyi asked over the open comms, an edge of panic to his voice that made Lan Zhan’s mouth twist. It was his fault that his cousin was here in the first place, after all; he’d offered him a position on his ship due in part to Lan Jingyi’s skills and also to get him out of Lan Qiren’s hair. Apparently a too-clever, loud mouthed teenager trapped in the peaceful City of Clouds in Gusu had driven everyone up the wall.

He’d reminded Lan Zhan of Wei Ying-- the irrepressible character, the frequent mischief, a voice that ricocheted off of steel walls like a blaster shot. He was joy and humor and noise, a welcome change from the solemn silence aboard the Hanguang-Jun. It made him think of things loved and lost, bittersweet memories that perhaps made him more lenient with Lan Jingyi than his family would approve of.

And Lan Zhan had brought him straight into a trap, likely to be picked off by power hungry mercenaries or held as a hostage.

Even as the thought crossed his mind, the control panel beeped urgently, warning him that the cruisers had locked their missiles onto the Hanguang-Jun.

So they had decided to kill him after all.

His brother would be devastated, Lan Zhan thought distantly.

“I’ve still got the sonics,” Mianmian said, strapping herself into the copilot’s seat and reaching for the weapons controls. As his security expert and weapons master, Mianmian had seen them through insurmountable odds before; she remained as cool as ever under the flashing red warning lights. “I can pick off the missiles as they come, unless they unload several at once on us.”

“Can we use them to hit first?” Lan Jingyi asked, breathing heavily as he worked in the overheated mechanical room. “No one in the galaxy can counter Lan sonic tech.”

“They’re out of range,” Mianmian said regretfully.

“They haven’t attempted to hail us?” Lan Zhan asked, staring the largest cruiser down as it loomed over them in a blatant attempt to intimidate them. He suspected there was more at play here-- cruisers like this cost serious money, and even if simple mercenary crews got their hands on one, they didn’t keep them long. But two? Lan Zhan knew a set up when he saw it.

Lan Jingyi-- their mechanic and communications officer, because he was “skilled like that”-- made a sound of disgust. “No. So much for intergalactic law, right?”

“So many for just us,” Mianmian said, scowling out the front shield. “That’s half a damn army out there.”

The Hanguang-Jun had a reputation, though. Lan Zhan and his tiny crew went where the chaos was, and recently they’d taken on a number of jobs that had required the full force of their combined skill and strategy to survive. Except they’d not only survived, they’d demolished multiple bands of the rogue mercenaries that wandered the galaxy, terrorizing the helpless colonies too small or poor to defend themselves.

Someone had been paying attention, it seemed. And they had gone so far as to plant a spy-- Su She, hired only a week ago as extra support-- to lead them to an ambush in the middle of nowhere.

No one would know of their deaths for some time; the largest cruiser had an active jammer to block any distress signals, and Lan Zhan wasn’t due for a check in with his family for weeks.

He regretted the deaths of his crew. His friends. The loss his brother and uncle would soon face. And, privately, Lan Zhan regretted that he would never find Wei Ying. The bright, brilliant boy who’d vanished entirely after the Sunshot Wars, wherein the galaxy had come together to bring down Wen Ruohan before he could harness a sun’s energy to demolish entire planets.

So much left unsaid. But Wei Ying had broken the Wen remnants out of a prison world and disappeared into the darkness between the stars. No one knew where he’d gone. If he was alive. If they’d ever see him again.

Lan Zhan, it seemed, would never find out.

“Our shields?” He asked quietly, gripping the sleek rail separating the pilots’ seats from the rest of the control room so tightly his knuckles were white.

“In tatters,” Lan Jingyi said, trying to sound brave and landing somewhere around apprehensive. “I’m doing my best, Captain, but…”

“It’s alright,” Lan Zhan said gently. “We will try the sonic cannons.”

Mianmian’s eyes flickered to him, but she kept quiet. They both knew it would only take one missed shot to destroy their ship, and they were laughably outnumbered. But the comms were open and Lan Jingyi was listening intently from the engine room, so they kept their mutual understanding nonverbal.

“Well. It’s been an honor, Captain,” she murmured, too low for the comm line to pick up.

“For me as well,” Lan Zhan said, and dropped his hands to the pilot controls. He would try to help Mianmian dodge missiles as best he could, despite the futility of the situation.

The beeping became frantic, screaming in urgency as the second cruiser locked onto them. The cockpit was dim, lit only by the flashing warning lights that cast them in hues of red.

They waited, braced for the first burst of light that would signal a dispatched missile, surrounded on all sides, caught in a killing field with no way out.

Three bright souls on the cusp of darkness, facing a death that would leave them floating adrift in the eternal expanse of space. Not so terrible an end, he supposed, for a crew of wayfarers.

Mianmian suddenly jerked in place. “What the...?”

Lan Zhan’s attention snapped to her, wondering if he’d missed the beginning of the execution. He followed her baffled gaze, and then froze at the sight of a mid-sized, battered red cruiser dropping out of hyperspace, right on top of the armada.

He knew that cruiser. Had seen it only once, when a small collection of Wen prisoners had boarded it in the midst of a fierce storm with a slender, defiant figure guarding their escape.

The Yílíng Lǎozǔ drifted casually along, drawing the attention of the armada when its heavy artillery cannons dropped into active position. Half of the mercenaries turned their starships around to face the new threat.

“Is that who I think it is?” Mianmian whispered. Lan Zhan could not answer, though the hope in her voice matched the rising sun of his own.

“Is what who you think it is? What’s happening?” Lan Jingyi asked. They didn’t answer, too focused on the Yílíng Lǎozǔ and its unhurried course through the mercenaries’ ranks. Neither took much notice when he skidded into the cockpit to join them, breathing hard with wide, fever-bright eyes.

MianMian made a noise low in her throat when one of the cruisers disengaged their missile lock and turned it onto the Yílíng Lǎozǔ. “They’re going to get blown into pieces, why aren’t they moving out of range?”

Lan Zhan didn’t even notice the moment he stood, so tense his bones felt as though they’d shatter into pieces at a single touch. Wei Ying, what are you doing?

As if in answer, the largest cruiser angled to give chase to the Yílíng Lǎozǔ-- and exploded so abruptly and violently that Lan Zhan nearly staggered back in shock. Mianmian swore in mingled fear and delight, and Lan Jingyi exclaimed similar feelings at the top of his lungs.

“They dropped mines, did you see that?” She asked, leaning forward with bright eyes. “Completely off the radar-- we didn’t get so much as a blip, and this radar’s the only damn thing that is working on this ship.”

“Wei Ying has always been inventive,” Lan Zhan said, chest tight with something huge and undefinable.

“Fucking brilliant is what he is,” Mianmian said, and then made a face. “Don’t you dare tell him I said that.”

That implied Lan Zahn was going to see him, which promptly overrode every other thought in his head and made him feel as though he’d been struck in the head with a Lan sonic cannon.

Debris from the destroyed cruiser littered the battlefield, briefly hiding the Yílíng Lǎozǔ from sight.

“They won’t fall for that trick twice,” Mianmian muttered, leaning forward. “Careful, now.”

And then, so suddenly Lan Zhan and Mianmian made twin noises of shock, the starships closest to the Hanguang-Jun exploded. He thought at first it was another trick with the mines, but--

A ripple of darkness rocketed past the nose of their ship, far too fast to track. It was utterly undetectable except for the trail of destruction it left behind. The starship moved at impossible speeds; not even the Nie’s most advanced fighters could move like that, and they were the foremost engineers in the galaxy.

It took another moment, during which starships blew up like a pre-planned chain reaction, for Lan Zhan to realize there were two of these ships-- starfighters, combat aircraft built for speed and stealth. They worked off of each other like they were a hive mind, targeting clusters of enemy ships and annihilating them with some unknown invisible weapon that pulverized the ships into fragments.

A series of explosions along the remaining cruiser nearly tore it in half. Lan Jingyi whooped as it careened wildly out of control and erupted into blinding light.

Lan Zhan’s focus, though, was drawn inexplicably to the shimmer of darkness flitting through the ranks of the armada, slipping into impossibly narrow spaces, performing acrobatics that only someone absolutely fearless would even dream of.

Wei Ying had always taken “attempt the impossible” to heart.

“Look!” Lan Jingyi exclaimed, pointing outside their windshield to a furrow in the black void of space. A third ship, this one hovering just beside the Hanguang-Jun as a clear threat-- come any closer, and you’d be decimated like the rest of the ruined armada. Lan Jingyi waved, and the ripple of black dipped low and then back into place.

“What kind of weapon is that?” Mianmian wondered, watching in awe as a single shot from one of Wei Ying’s starfighters dissolved a starship into particles.

Lan Zhan remembered Wei Ying’s theories on dark matter, and he wondered.

It did not take long for the battle to end. None of the ships even had a chance to escape, and any that tried were chased down within a few heartbeats and destroyed.

The communications system blipped as the two starfighters finished off the remaining enemies. Lan Jingyi looked at Lan Zhan in question, who nodded and waited for him to open the channel to say, “This is Lan Zhan, Captain of the Hanguang-Jun.”  

“Hello, Captain,” someone replied. A young man, by the sounds of it, and politely cheerful. “Our captain has asked me to escort you to the Yílíng Lǎozǔ, if you are amenable.”

That was almost certainly not the way Wei Ying had likely worded it. Lan Zhan found himself wanting to smile. “I am amenable,” he said. “My ship is badly damaged and in need of repair.”

“We can help with that,” the boy replied, and was then interrupted by a voice that made Lan Zhan’s stomach swoop violently.

“Lan Zhan! Are you really going to let me put my grubby hands all over your shiny ship?”

He closed his eyes, emotion swelling in his chest. “Wei Ying can put his hands on anything of mine he wishes,” he said calmly, and meant every word.

He heard a squawk, a faint crash followed by an angry beep, and then a third voice calling in concern, “Wei-gongzi!”

“I’m fine, Wen Ning,” Wei Ying said hastily. Lan Zhan eyed the small piece of debris spinning away into the void, as though it had been clipped by the wing of a starfighter, perhaps.

“Ah,” Wei Ying laughed. “Lan Zhan, I didn’t expect you to have jokes now! I’ve missed a lot, it seems.”

“I have missed more.” Too much, if Wei Ying had made advancements like this; he’d clearly discovered some secret to the universe and left the rest of them far behind.

Lan Zhan had let him slip between his fingers once before. He was tired of being left behind.

“Wen Qing is bringing the Yílíng Lǎozǔ to you,” Wei Ying said with more warmth than Lan Zhan deserved. He had, after all, let Wei Ying down all those years ago. “I’ll see you soon, Lan Zhan.”

“Soon,” Lan Zhan agreed, and let the comm line fall to silence.

Soon. He felt his heart skip a beat in anticipation. Soon he would be face to face with Wei Ying again, the boy he’d loved and lost before he truly understood the potential for what it was, too busy being offended by the concept of his own stupid infatuation.

Soon, Lan Zhan thought again, and his tiny, hopeful smile was witnessed solely by the blanket of darkness and the glittering, luminous lights of a nearby star. A secret of his own, held between him and a universe full of possibility.

[obwjam]

stowaway (bad batch x tiny)

this piece is titled: the bad batch s1e1 “aftermath” except instead of omega it’s a tiny who was a stowaway on their ship from kaller and they discover her on the way back to kamino and now they have to hide her from everyone

(bad batch spoilers included so if you care pls watch the ep before reading!)

———————————————————————

Truth be told, Jara was just as confused as the rest of them.

It was nothing atypical. Battle droids on one side, clones and Jedi on the other, all screaming and firing blasters and blowing everything to hell. Though tinies were often isolated from everything, the Clone War was the exception.

Which is why it was time for her to leave. Again.

She had already lost countless friends and family throughout her life with no massive conflict in her backyard. At this point, she just had to look out for herself; not to mention the horror stories of what happened to tinies when captured by the Separatists were at the forefront of her mind. So when she found an empty ship in the woods, she smuggled herself inside and went about observing the place. There were unopened rations and some rather awful-smelling clothes scattered about, which told her that this ship was definitely not abandoned or out of commission. There were no droids, either, so she had to assume it was a Republic ship. Perfect. Wherever it stopped at next, she would sneak off and see if she could find some other tinies to settle with for a while.

Just her luck that the clones who owned this ship were, well… these guys.

“Whatever’s happening here, I don’t like it.”

She gasped and ducked behind an object on the table when she heard the voice.

“Best not to worry about it until we get back home. Plotting coordinates now.”

She cautiously leaned out from behind the object to get a better look. There were five people -- clones, she inferred from the armor, but they didn’t really look alike at all. One with goggles was piloting the ship, while a bulky one with a big scar was slumped over in the chair adjacent to him. The other three were exchanging distressed looks between themselves and the floor.

“How long’s it gonna take?!” the bulky one groaned, throwing his hands up in the air. She flinched.

“Wrecker, please.” This one had long hair and a tattoo covering half his face. “Just relax a little.”

“Maybe you can relax, Hunter, but I wanna keep fightin’!” Okay. He was Hunter, and he was Wrecker. Not exactly the type of names you’d want to make enemies with.

“Hunter’s right. We could all use a breather after… well, after what just happened back there.” This one was pale and had a bunch of cybernetic attachments on his head. Ick.

“Hmph.” The last remaining clone, who had grey hair and a toothpick hanging from the corner of his mouth, grunted in displeasure. Hunter didn’t seem to like that.

“Got somethin’ to say, Crosshair?” 

Crosshair folded his arms and didn’t say a word.

It was a fairly short, uneventful ride. The group mostly sat in silence, occasionally sharing a thought or two as they saw fit. There seemed to be a bit of tension, though, as Hunter and Crosshair kept exchanging pointed glances.

There was an uncomfortable lurch as the ship dropped out of hyperspace. Jara yelped and stumbled forward, but nobody noticed.

“We’re coming up on Kamino,” the pilot said. Hmm. Kamino. She had never heard of it.

“It’s good to be home,” Wrecker sighed from the passenger chair. “How long has it been?”

“One hundred and eighty rotations in a standard cycle…” the pilot started, and that was when Jara zoned out again. He sure had a penchant for droning on and on.

“You sure that padawan died when he fell?”

Her stomach dropped as she snapped back to attention. Wait, padawan? Died? Why did they need to make sure a Jedi was dead?

“Sure I’m sure. Why?”

“Well, usually when someone falls, you look down, not… across… uh, what is that?”

She froze. Even through the helmet, she knew Crosshair was staring right at her. She could tell because she couldn’t stop staring right back at him. Her mind told her to run, but her legs wouldn’t respond. She thought she was hidden -- only a little bit of her was poking out from behind the object she had settled down behind. But all it took was one passing glance for Crosshair to spot her. She was practically pinned down by his gaze as the others, minus the one piloting the ship, followed his stare to where she stood, shaking.

“What’s what? I don’t see anything,” Wrecker whined, standing up. She gulped. He was huge.

“There,” said the pale one, robotic arm pointing right at her. “Behind one of Tech’s… things.” Even through her terror, she managed to sniff a laugh. Tech is a ridiculous name.

Wrecker tilted his head and squinted, but it didn’t take long to find her. “Oh. Oh. Woah…”

“Don’t,” Hunter warned. He stuck his arm out in Wrecker’s direction as he inched closer to the strange, cowering girl in front of him. “We don’t know what it is.”

“What what is?” came the voice of Tech from the cockpit. He quickly set the ship to autopilot before excitedly bounding to where the other four were standing to see what was going on. “What are we looking at?”

“On the table,” Crosshair muttered. His piercing gaze didn’t waver for a moment. Her eyes flickered over to Tech, whose own eyes were wide as he finally saw her. He reached for his tablet and furiously began typing into it.

“It’s… it’s a tiny,” he said matter-of-factly. 

“Yeah, we can see it’s tiny,” Wrecker frowned.

“No, Wrecker,” Tech shook his head. “That’s what their species is called. They’re a… a race of miniature humanoid beings that inhabit thousands of planets across the galaxy.”

“Oh…” Wrecker was at a loss for words. Never in his entire life had he seen something so small. So vulnerable. He took a few cautious steps, and Hunter grimaced at the way she seemed to shrink back as he approached.

“Come on, Wrecker, don’t get too close.”

“Why not? I can barely see the little guy!”

“Girl.”

“What?”

“I… I think it’s a she,” Tech said, his goggles whirring as they analyzed her. 

“Does she speak basic?” the pale one asked. He couldn’t take his eyes off her, either.

“I’m… not sure. There’s not really too much data here… height ranges anywhere from two to five inches… there have been some documented cases of tinies living well over 100 years…”

“If they’re all over the galaxy, why have we never seen one before?” Hunter posited, trying to keep his voice low. She clenched her jaw every time one of them spoke.

“...And why is this one on our ship?” Crosshair asked pointedly, narrowing his eyes. Her stomach began to turn.

“Why don’t we just ask?” Wrecker proposed. Hunter and the pale one exchanged an uncomfortable glance, but Wrecker didn’t wait for permission. He closed the gap between him and the table and took a knee. 

Her grip tightened on the object as she craned her neck upward. Even when he leaned down, he still towered over her.

“What’s your name, little guy?” he practically yelled at her, making her wince and look away. 

“Wrecker, can’t you see she’s terrified?” Hunter groused. 

Crosshair rolled his eyes. He didn’t feel right about this “tiny” being on their ship. For all they knew, she was a Separatist spy. “Enough of this,” he grumbled. He lunged forward with an outstretched hand, ready to get to the bottom of his, but stopped short of her when she pulled out a weapon, pointing it at them with shaking hands.

“DON’T!” she yelled, stunning the five clones in front of her. They were not expecting to hear her voice, much less see her unsheathe a sword that had no chance of harming anyone. “I--I’m sorry, I--I just needed to get off Kaller, please, I wasn’t going to -- I wasn’t gonna take anything, I swear! Just -- just stay back!”

She couldn’t believe this. She had never been seen before. Not once in her entire life. And here she was, finally able to escape that wretched cold planet and start a new life, and now she was going to be caged and sold on the black market like every other tiny was when they were discovered. Or maybe these weird clones would keep her as a prize.

Hunter blinked. Her tiny little sword was adorable, and there was no way it would ever make a dent in any of them. But he at least admired her ability to stand her ground. He couldn’t blame her, either -- being stared down by five enhanced clones had to be nothing less than horrifying to someone so small.

“Hey, relax… we’re not gonna hurt you,” Hunter said calmly, holding up his hands. “We just want to know who you are and what you’re doing on our ship.”

It took her a moment to stabilize her breathing, but she was able to gather enough strength to wipe away the tears she barely even realized had formed in her eyes and fully take in the giant in front of her. He was certainly terrifying by virtue of the fact that he was leaning so close to her, but the curiosity in his eyes… the way his mouth hung slightly agape… the softness of his expression… he was just confused. It was the same look she was giving him.

“I… I--I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I just... I had nowhere else to go…”

“Were you running from the Seps?” the pale one chimed in. 

She shrugged. “I was running from the war.”

“Is Kaller your home planet?” Tech asked, popping into view behind Hunter. 

She shook her head. “I’ve been planet-hopping my whole life. I’ve just been on Kaller for a really long time. I’m not really sure where I’m from.”

“Hey, you never answered my question!” Wrecker cried, cutting off Tech, who was preparing to ask a follow-up question. “What’s your name?”

“My name’s Jara,” she said, voice quavering. Wrecker’s eyes lit up when she spoke -- he was just happy she was addressing him. “I, uh. I know all your names,” she managed to say. “Except you.”

The pale one was taken aback. “Um. I-I’m Echo.”

“Echo,” she repeated. That was nothing like the other four names.

“If you just stumbled upon our ship, how do you know our names?” Crosshair asked, eyebrows raised as he dared to lean in closer. 

She let out a nervous laugh. “You-- you all said each other’s names in conversation. I just connected the dots.”

“Hm.” Crosshair wasn’t sure if he believed that.

“Lighten up, Crosshair,” Hunter grumbled. “She’s obviously not a threat.”

“That we know of.”

“Well actually, according to this data, tinies appear to be a peaceful, primitive people,” Tech said. “They have little to no means to inflict any meaningful damage upon us or anyone else.”

Jara scrunched her face up and glared at Tech. “Yeah, well, you don’t need to say it like that,” she mumbled. She was surprised when Hunter snickered.

“So you really came to our ship just to flee your planet?” Wrecker asked in a rare moment of calmness. He couldn’t stop staring at this tiny girl -- he was surprised she even managed to stay alive long enough to find someplace to hide. But now that she was here, well, he felt as if it was his responsibility to keep her safe. Even the smallest of creatures could be deadly to her.

“Yeah,” she said, taking a few shaky steps forward. “I--I just needed to get somewhere safe, that’s all. Maybe find some more tinies. I was going to leave right when you landed somewhere, honest.”

“Well, there certainly won’t be any tinies where we’re going,” Tech scoffed.

“...where are we going?” she dared to ask. 

“Kamino. Our home planet.”

“More like a factory than a home,” Hunter mumbled. Jara stiffened. That did not sound like a place she wanted to be.

“There is no we here,” Crosshair scolded, glancing around at his brothers. “There is no place for you there, tiny. It’s just the clones and the Kaminoans. You wouldn’t even survive the night.” He paused, taking in the looks of apprehension from everyone. “What? We’re not seriously going to take her with us, are we?”

Hunter grimaced and shot Jara a look that said sorry about him. After a few beats of uncomfortable silence, Tech spoke up.

“...maybe just until we get sent on another mission,” he said, uncharacteristically meek. “I mean, there are so many questions I want to ask. This could be our only chance to gather data.”

Jara rolled her eyes. “Gee, thanks.”

“What are we gonna do, Crosshair, make her stay on the ship? There’s nowhere else for her to go.”

“She should have never been here in the first place,” Crosshair mumbled, clearly outnumbered in his opinion. 

“But she is. And she was just trying to save herself,” Echo added. “There’s nothing wrong with that. I say we help her while we can.”

“Wrecker? What do you think?” Hunter asked, turning to the largest clone. He had been strangely quiet for the last few minutes.

“Huh? Uh, yeah, yeah. We should help,” he stumbled. “I don’t see anythin’ wrong with that.”

A loud beep echoed from the cockpit, prompting Tech to shoot up from his seat. “Strap in, boys. And, uh, girl. We’re coming in for a landing.”

Jara stood awkwardly, unsure of what to do, until a giant hand was placed at her side. She yelped.

“Climb on, kid,” said Hunter, fully aware of how spooked Jara looked. “I’ve gotta hide you somewhere.”

“She can hide with me,” Tech piped up from the front. “I have some space in my belt.”

“You okay with that?” Hunter asked. Jara’s glance shifted from Hunter’s face to his hand to Wrecker and back to Hunter. 

“Um. Sure,” she said weakly. “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”

“Nope!” Wrecker beamed. “Unless you want the entire clone army to know you’re here!”

“...The belt sounds wonderful.”

“Good.” Hunter stayed patient as Jara gathered up the courage to willingly climb onto a human hand. She took a few deep breaths and clenched her fists before shutting her eyes and leaping up to his palm in one try. Hunter sniffed a laugh.

“I’ll go slow,” he said, gently standing up and taking careful strides toward Tech. Jara tried her best to stay still, but Hunter could both feel her tension and her trembles. Once the ship was parked, Tech flipped open the flap to one of his belt pockets. Jara grabbed onto Hunter’s thumb when he lowered his hand down and hesitated for a brief moment before climbing into the pocket. Everyone was watching her, and she didn’t like it.

It was hard to hear what was going on outside, but as the group made their way through the hangar and back to their barrack, she was barely able to make out the words “Grievous”, “defeated” and “over”. Did that mean what she thought it meant?

Light flooded her vision once again when Tech’s giant hand snapped open the pocket. Without really thinking, he reached down and scooped her up, causing Jara to yelp and grab onto one of Tech’s fingers for dear life as she was pulled up at a breakneck speed.

“Oh. Sorry,” Tech blushed upon seeing her sickened face. The way she was clinging onto him was nothing short of adorable. “Guess that was a bit sudden.”

“A warning next time would be *hic* nice,” Jara groaned. “Oh, stars. This place smells worse than the ship.”

“Told you,” Crosshair grinned, nudging a sad-looking Wrecker. 

Echo leaned down. “You’ll get used to it.”

Jara gave a weak smile before turning her attention to Tech, who was beaming down at her. Sitting in his hand, she really had no choice but to endure his questions.

“So, goggles. What do you wanna know?” she asked, knowing such a question would make Tech explode. And it did. Even Hunter was starting to get sick of it after Tech had asked every question and written down every note he possibly could. 

“What about special skills? Do you have heightened agility, superb senses? Anything like that?”

Jara shrugged. “I mean, maybe. I dunno. I don’t really know what’s… normal.”

“Hmm…” Tech wrote her answer down word-for-word. “What if we tried--”

Across the room, Wrecker had finally lost it. “Ugh, can somebody shut him up?! I can’t take it anymore!”

“Of course you wouldn’t understand the importance of--”

“--I think he’s right, Tech,” Hunter jumped in. “You should give her a break.”

“And give us a break,” Crosshair mumbled to himself.

“I-it’s okay,” Jara interjected. The last thing she wanted was to become the center of another conflict. “You can ask me more stuff later. I don’t mind, really.”

“Later…” Tech repeated. “So, what? Are we going to keep you?” 

“Keep--keep me?” Jara gulped, her eyes flying wide.

“I think he means let you stay here with us for a little longer than a night,” Hunter said. “Right?” 

“Well, since we have to go to that meeting soon, and then who knows what we’ll be asked to do after, I just assumed she meant she would be staying with us for a while, considering there are multiple tests I need to run now. Not to mention all the questions I’ll surely have after that.” Tech paused, giving a look of hurt to the group. “I thought that was obvious?”

“Tech, come on, you’re freaking her out!” Echo cried. He was right. At the mere mention of the word test, Jara had tensed up again. “Can we even do that? Actually harbor a stowaway with us?”

“It’s definitely against regulations,” Hunter mused.

“...so we gotta do it, right?” Wrecker jumped in with a big grin. “I mean, come on! She has a tiny sword! That’s awesome!”

“Well, I guess that’s up to her,” Hunter smiled, turning his attention back to Jara. Her gaze was bouncing back and forth between all five clones, though it was obvious to Hunter that she was trying to avoid looking at Crosshair. “Whadda ya say? Do you wanna lay low with us for a while?”

“You really mean that?” she asked, overtly aware of the fact that this could be a trap. After all, it was clear one of them didn’t like her. But the others… Tech was overzealous, sure, but he was earnest in his curiosity and desire to simply know more about her. Echo was definitely reserved, but seemed to be just as concerned for her as the others. Wrecker was just a big ol’ kid. He seemed to like her just fine. And Hunter… well, Hunter couldn’t keep his eyes off her. He was rational. She knew he believed her story, however unbelievable it may be. 

Hunter nodded. “Yeah, I do. I can’t guarantee anything, but we’ll try and keep you safe until we can find you a better place to live. I should warn you, though. Our squad’s nothing but trouble. It might get dangerous.”

“The only thing I’ve ever known is danger,” she shrugged. “And I’ve stayed alive this long.”

Wrecker let out a bellowing laugh. Even though it shattered her eardrums, she couldn’t help but smile back. “Ha! I like her!”

Jara didn’t say it, but in that moment, everyone seemed to pick up on it. She liked them too.

[basura2319]

Nervous wreck

Pairing: wrecker x fem!reader

Requested by: anonymous

Anonymous: 

“Can we get a Wrecker x reader one shot where wrecker really likes the reader and wants to be with her, but he thinks that she won’t like him because he is too big and rough? But it turns out that the reader loves wrecker since the day she met him? I would like this to be extra fluffy”

Warnings: none

WC: 2k

A/N: A huge thanks to @chaotic-noceur for beta-reading my fic and for coming up with this funny yet brilliant title.

“Wrecker? Wrecker!"

Wrecker felt Crosshair smack him on the back of his head.

“Wha-what?” he said startled, rubbing the area where his brother hit him.

Crosshair's eyes trailed to whatever was putting Wrecker in such a stupor and of course, it was you, the teams' Republic "supervisor." You reported to the Republic missions you tagged along with the Bad Batch, and you briefed them on missions the Republic ordered for you all to carry out.

“Quit gawking at (Y/N) and help me put these supplies back onto the ship,” he griped, lifting the crate of this month's supply of rations, medical equipment, and restock of weapons.

Wrecker blushed. “I wasn’t starin’ at her…”

“Sure you weren’t,” Crosshair taunted, before going up the ramp. Soon Wrecker followed him while carrying two crates.

Wrecker went back outside the ship and his eyes landed on you once more. You were carrying—more like struggling, to take the last remaining boxes.

“Let me help you with that.” He reached out to take one of the crates from your arms.

You smiled warmly at him, punching his arm lightly. “Show off.”

Wrecker tilted his head slightly away from you to hide the creeping blush on his face.

“Thank you as always,” you said kindly, following him on board. Wrecker’s blush grew even more at that.

After getting all the supplies gathered, they took off with no real direction to head to.

“So,” Hunter turned the pilot’s chair towards you. “Anything assigned to us?”

You shook your head. “No, I’ve received nothing as of now.”

“Great,” smirked Hunter, leaning back on the chair as tossing his knife. “More time for us.”

“Yeah…” you bit your lip in worry. “But don’t get too comfortable.”

“Tech, I’m starving,” drawled Crosshair from where he sat. “Go check what’s in the crates.”

“Why don’t you go get it,” Tech said without looking up from what was doing.

Crosshair flicked the toothpick he plucked from his mouth at his brother. “You’re closer,” he said smugly.

Wrecker caught you chuckling at their banter and the sound of your laughter caused his stomach to stir.

Tech shot him a slightly annoyed look before abandoning the piece of hardware he was working on. He opened the crate to look at the contents inside, but his expression showed disappointment and you all knew why as he pulled out a pack of plain, army-issued rations packs.

“Here,” Tech tossed the pack at him.

Crosshair groaned. “I’m tired of this. Is there seriously nothin’ else?”

“Let’s see, uh, we have dried meat, protein bars, Jogan fruit—”

“Gimme one of those.”

“Skrag,” you lamented at watching the morsels the Republic brought you all to consume. “I wish we could’ve stopped somewhere to eat real food.”

Wrecker, you hadn’t noticed, extended his hand to give you one of the packs along with a protein bar.

“Uh here,” he said awkwardly. His skin prickled when your fingers brushed over his momentarily.

“Thank you Wrecker,” you said with a small smile.

He felt himself smile, up until he saw his brothers staring at him with knowing looks on their faces. He frowned, grunting lowly at them.

The three of his brothers had watched him fall for you from the moment you joined the team. What they never understood was why he never attempted to make a move on you. You seemed to like him, like being around his presence. He’s the one who got you to laugh the most and the one you frequented to when you wanted to spar. Yet Wrecker knew himself. He knew he was rough, not a person people liked making conversation with. His height and bulkiness intimidated people which in turn, all those qualities made him self conscious, but he was good at appearing like those things never bothered him. His flaws convinced himself that he had no chance of being with a pretty, kind-hearted, yet fierce person like you.

It was nearing the time for all of you to rest although traveling in space made it hard to tell when it was day or night. One person, as always, had to stay up to watch and navigate the ship, but today was Hunter’s turn to do it. Just before Wrecker could go join his brothers in their bunks, Hunter stopped him.

“Listen, Wrecker,” he said to him in a low tone. “You gotta tell her how you feel. There’s no point in agonizing over it.”

Wrecker looked away. “She’s just a friend Sarge. Our teammate,” he muttered angrily.

Hunter raised a brow at him. “Well, when the war ends and she has to depart from the team without you telling her, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He thumped Wrecker on the back before heading towards the cockpit.

As Wrecker laid there on his bunk, listening to the snores of Crosshair and Tech, his mind drifted to Hunter’s words. What would happen when you’d eventually leave the team?

You’d probably find and end up with someone that’s not him; someone better than him. All because he was too scared to confess how you made him feel. However, the thought of watching you with another person filled him to brim with dread. Could he stand by and let that happen?

In his heart, no, he couldn’t let it happen.

*

“I hope you don’t plan on giving those to her,” Tech said while still fixated on his computer terminal, sitting on a rock.

“What? Why?” Wrecker said with an outraged tone, almost reaching for some bright red flowers on Kattada; a forest planet they landed on as a resting spot for the day.

“Unless you want (Y/N) to develop a rash, then I suggest you don’t,” he stated matter of factly. “The Iblorn’s sap creates a deadly rash to whoever comes in contact with i—”

Wrecker cut him off with a frustrated groan. He spotted purple flowers bunched up at the base of a tree. “How ‘bout these?” He picked them up and gave a sniff only to receive an onslaught of loud and rambunctious sneezing.

“Yeah, no,” Tech said before typing something rapidly onto his computer. “Try the Tumellas. According to this database, they appear to be harmless.”

Picking flowers for you shouldn't be so hard, thought Wrecker, and he had Tech, the smartest person he knew, to help him.

“Where do I find those?” he said looking at Tech expectedly.

Tech hummed in thought, reading through what he had on his screen. “You should be able to find them near a stream? Just find a yellow-orange flower with petals in a crown formation.”

Wrecker beamed, trying to contain both his excitement and nervousness. “Thanks, Tech.”

So with Tech’s description, he ventured into the forest to find a stream, which turned out to be not so difficult to find. He could hear the rush of water from a distance as he brushed passed bushes.

Okay, a yellow-orange flower with a crown petal arrangement. His eyes scanned over the bushes, but he found none. Wrecker found it difficult to even focus without his insecurities blaring into his head to stop whatever he was about to do. You would never like him the way he liked you. Yet despite his doubts, a small voice within the back of his mind was pushing him to try.

His eyes soon caught on the flower he ventured all this way for. The Tumella, as Tech said, was beautiful and so vibrant; hard to miss, like you, thought Wrecker. He plucked the stem of the flower to examine it closer. It wasn’t particularly small, but as it sat on the palm of his hand it was. Its center had a tawny brown bud and the smell—he took a sniff at the flower and grinned. Yeah, he was definitely bringing you these.

He crouched over to grab some more so he could arrange them into a bouquet of some sort. When he decided he had enough, Wrecker moseyed on back to the path he took to get back to you.

Soon, anxiety pooled into his stomach. His palms, which were carrying the flowers, were sweating in unease. He was scared, he realized the closer he got to the ship.

No, no he shouldn’t do this, what was he thinking?

Too distracted by his own thoughts, he didn’t hear you approach him.

“There you are,” your voice rang with enthusiasm.

Wrecker stopped in his tracks, assessing you with wide eyes, and without thinking, he quickly stuck the flowers behind him in panic.

Obviously, he wasn’t fast enough judging by your creased forehead, and your gaze centered on the arm he had behind his back.

“What are those?”

“Uhm,” He looked to the floor. “Nothing.”

You rolled your eyes. “Oh come now, let me see! Did you find some kind of critter by any chance?”

He backed away from you slowly. “Um.” He didn’t know what to respond with. “Yes!”

“Oooh,” you craned your neck to try to see what it was. “Can I see it?”

“N-no,” he stammered.

“Oh come on!”

You gripped his arm to pull. “Show me!”

Knowing you weren’t going to stop any time soon, he cautiously presented to you the flowers.

You blinked in confusion a couple of times before talking.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” you replied with a small chuckle. You brushed your fingertips lightly over the petals in awe. “These are beautiful, where'd you find them?”

At this point, Wrecker’s face was as red as the markings on his armor.

“Uh, near the stream,” he managed to say through the lump lodged in his throat.

“So you collect plants now,” you said teasingly. “Didn’t take you for the type.”

He swallowed thickly. “Actually…these are for you.”

You froze and your mouth formed an ‘o’ shape at his words. Then your mouth lifted into a bright smile.

“Aww Wrecker,” you took them from his noticeable shaky hands. “Thank you, you’re so sweet! These are beautiful!” You sniffed them. “They smell wonderful too.”

Wrecker was fidgeting, seeing the happiness radiating from receiving his gift and it made it harder for him to say what he needed to say because he didn’t want to ruin this moment.

Your brows furrowed in worry at the clear and uncomfortable face he made. “Hey, you okay?”

His dark eyes snapped towards yours at the question.

“Yes, it’s just…” he wavered, bringing a hand behind his neck to rub at the skin. “I’m not good at this…”

Your gaze lingered at him in confusion. “Good at what?”

“I like you.”

The words spilled out of his mouth like a deluge.

“Well, I should hope so Wrecker,” you said with an arm propped on your hip. “We spend so much time with each other.”

Kriff.

“No… I like you,” he enunciated again, but this time slowly.

Your breath hitched and you both stood there, for what it seemed like forever in awkward silence.

The silence stretched on until you began to break into fits of laughter.

That was not the reaction Wrecker wanted and his heart felt like it was about to shatter.

Seeing the obvious hurt in his face, your laughter stopped and you launched yourself at him in a hug.

Startled at your abruptness, he wrapped his arms around you tightly, not fully grasping that this was real. You were hugging him right now.

“I didn’t mean to laugh,” you said wholeheartedly while pulling slightly away from his chest to look him in the eye. “I’m astonished is all because well… I like you too. Always have since the first time we met.”

Wrecker’s mind faltered at your confession. “Really?” He said, cupping his callous hand to your face in a gentle manner. “I-I thought you wouldn’t ‘cause I’m a giant, and-and act rough and people don’t like—”

You clamped a hand over his mouth to stop his rambling.

“I like you for you, Wrecker,” you said, looking at him with sincerity. “Your size and what makes you a fierce person will not, nor will it ever, turn me away from you, okay?”

You screeched when he lifted you over his shoulder and giggled at the boisterous shout of joy he gave.

Permanent Taglist: (lmk if you want to be added or removed) @chaotic-noceur @kaminobiwan

[jessiebanethedragon]

Could you please write something about Crosshair with his SO who was 2nd best sniper, but got blinded during a mission? How would he react? I'm sorry if you're not comfortable with this, just ignore this ask

Hello! i hope i did this ask justice, it’s kinda long so i apologize and as always, i hope you like it! ❤️ 

Crosshair loved and hated you from the moment he first laid eyes on you. It was at the shooting range on Coruscant, and he wanted to re-calibrate the team's weapons, (it was how he relaxed.) Except it wasn’t empty as he expected. It was currently full of Regs hollering at something or someone making shots at the furthest target. And he swore he saw red when he noticed all the blaster marks in the center. 

No one out-sniped crosshair. No one. 

So you can imagine his fury when the crowd parted and the bastard that was making shots wasn't a bastard at all but rather a breath-takingly beautiful woman. 

“This is a GAR range.” He grit out through his toothpick. “No Civies allowed.” You flashed him a devilish smile and pointed to the republic symbol imprinted on your shirt's shoulder. 

“Good thing i'm in the GAR then.” You told him. “Nice weapon.” You added nodding to his prized rifle, and on instinct he tightened his grip. 

“Thanks.” He was not in the mood for small talk. 

“Needs calibrating.” You noted, and everyone else was inching to the door, the competitive air in the room was too thick to miss. 

“I. Know.” Crosshair said through clenched teeth. “Would be calibrated already but there's a sorry excuse for a sniper standing in my way.” 

“Excuse me?” You asked, royally pissed off now. 

“You’re excused.” He said pushing past you. 

“Hey, i don't know who you think you are but i’ll have you know that you’re messing with the wrong sniper pal.” You yelled as Crosshair sat his things down and began setting up targets.  

“Oh yeah, and why’s that?” He asked standing toe to toe with you. 

“I’m the best in the GAR.” You said, reaching up and plucking the toothpick out of his mouth. 

“That would be second best Sweets.”  He smirked, grabbing your wrist mid air. 

“Really? Because last I heard no clone could top my scores.” You snapped pulling your wrist away. 

“No regular clone could.” Crosshair responded, emphasizing the ‘regular’ part of his  statement.  

“And what makes you so special?” You taunted, getting more and more frustrated.  

“You’ll just have to find out, now won't you?” He said with a smile. 

And the rest, they say is history. Days later you were assigned to a new clone force that of course he was a part of. And you quickly learnt  he was in fact the best, you being a close second. But the more you knew him the less you minded. And beside being able to tell people your boyfriend was the best sniper in the army was a lot of fun. 

Currently, you were running through some dense forest, making your way to the vantage point that Hunter had given you before he, Tech and Wrecker took off below you. 

“You doing okay Sweets?” Crosshair asked through your comms, the very infuriating nickname sticking after the two of you met. 

“Why do you ask? Scared I'll top your count this time?” You pant into your headset, damn this mountain was tall. 

“Not a chance beautiful.” You can hear him chuckle. 

“Can you two focus for once?” Hunter snaps. 

“Sorry Sarge.” You both call into the comms, smiling into the fresh air as you reach the ledge clearing. Laying on your stomach and setting up the rifle. 

“Looks like you got five clankers coming in on your left Tech.” You mumble, taking three of them out with a coupe shots, you see him take care of the others and throw a wave over his shoulder as a ‘thank you.’ 

“Hunter, somethings wrong.” Crosshairs voice crackles in the comms again. “There’s nothing over here, it’s empty. Kriff they’ve sent all battalions to the East.” You hear him curse again. You’re covering the East, 

“That can't be.” you call to them “I’m in the east and no one is here.” There is a mess of sounds in your ear. Crosshair shouting at something, Hunter swearing, Tech calling out to Wrecker for backup and blaster bolts echoing in the distance. You sling your rifle over your shoulder and bolt down the hill. Skidding to a halt as you see heavy artillery weapons converge on your location. 

You didn’t even stand a chance.  

You wake to darkness and your first thought is that you’re dead. But you can hear vague ringing and arguing so you begin to frantically feel around to gain an understanding of your surroundings. 

“Cyare, Sweets. Can you hear me?” It’s Crosshair calling to your in a very worried voice. 

“Cross?” You scream to him, manic hands searching for your love. 

“Hey, hey it’s okay, you’re okay.” you feel a hand on your arm but you still can’t see a thing. The conclusion hits you like a kaminoan wave. 

“Cross I can't see. Crosshair I can't see. I can't see anything.” Panic settles into your heart. 

“What do you mean?” his voice is scared and frantic. You feel tears on your face. 

“I can’t see.”  You whisper. 

Crosshair is furious. Tech had to give you a mild sedative to run some tests and look at the damage to your eyes. He paces the ship back and forth. 

“Is it permanent?” He asks when Tech rejoins the group. 

“I cannot tell, I can't run the necessary tests here, she needs a proper medbay. But my best guess is the strike that hit her was a biological weapon. We can thank the Techno Union for that one.” He says, sitting down in defeat.

“So what you’re actually saying is that you’re useless in terms of actually helping her.” Crosshair snaps at him.

“Cross,” Hunter warns. 

“Oh i’m sorry sergeant, would you like me to sugar coat it? Or do you wanna come up with another genius plan to get us all killed?” Crosshair says with a glare. He’s so far gone with anger nothing matters anymore. 

“Stand down soldier.” Hunter says standing up himself, knowing that if crosshair is still like this when they get to Coruscant there's going to be major problems. 

“She's. Blind.” He growls out. 

“Yeah and you need to pull it together Trooper.” Hunter says, softening his voice.  “She’s going to need you. Really, really, need you. Crosshair, if this is permanent…” He trails off when he sees the tears on his vods face. 

“She needs you.” Wrecker speaks up, looking at the door into your bunk. And Crosshair takes off, leaving a broken Bad Batch in his wake. 

He finds you laying on your back, running your hands up and down the sheets. Head whipping over as he opens the door. 

“Tech?” You ask into the darkness.

“Jus’ me.” Crosshair calls to you, walking over to sit on the edge of  your bed, careful not to disturb you. 

“Cross!” You exclaim. Throwing your arms over to where you think he is.you smack his leg and he  helps you find his face so you can feel it and know he really is there. 

“Hey beautiful,” He says with a small smile. 

“Hey mister.” You say with a sad voice. “What did Tech say?” You ask with a voice so unlike the joking, sassy one crosshair knew and loved. 

“He said that you need a proper medbay.” He chokes out. 

“It’s forever isn't it?” You say, beginning to cry. 

“We don't know that, we’ll fix this, you’re going to be fine, good as new. Everything is going to be okay.” He swallows his tears as he tries to console you. What you ask next shatters his heart. 

“Will you still want me if i can't be a sniper?” You question in between tears and hiccups. Crosshair moves you so that you’re in his lap and the two of you can be as close as possible. 

“How could you think for a moment I wouldn't want you anymore?” His eyes search yours, like he always did, a calming habit of his. And where your steady gaze used to be, there's panic. 

“I’m scared, please don't leave me.” You beg gripping his blacks tightly. 

“I’m not going anywhere.” He states firmly. “I’m in this for the long haul Sweets. It’s me and you, till the end of the universe. Couldn't get rid of me if you tried.” he presses a kiss to your hair. 

“I love you.” You curl into his chest.

“I love you more.” He says, pulling you closer and vowing to himself that no matter what happens the two of you are getting through it. Together.  

[jace-the-writer-guy]

M.I.A. Part One

The sounds of gunfire filled the night as a lone woman fought against a squad of Sentinel operatives that guarded a special facility. The facility in question experimented with portal technology, which would make transporting supplies all across the Auroa Archipelago simple and quick for Sentinel. The company had taken Skell Tech hostage, which was the company that they were forcing to make their drones, weapons, and now these portals. And numerous private operatives were hired to stop it.

One such operative was a lavender-eyed woman codenamed "Viper", and she was currently fighting her way into the main facility where the portal experimentation was taking place. She was a very fit woman that stood at five feet and eight inches tall. Her hair was semi-bright red, drawn up in a tight ponytail with a bit of her bangs hanging down over the right side of her face and eye. She wore a black half face mask covering her mouth and nose, with some black face paint over her eyes and forehead but not completely covering her skin. She wore gear that was all black, with a black magazine harness that held a few spare dual-magazines for the gun she was using which was a mainly matte black, classic MP5A4 chambered in 9mm. The gun was complete with a red dot sight, a flashlight integrated in the front of the handguard under the barrel, and a folding stock that could fold to the left side of the gun. The barrel, flashlight, magazines and sight were all a dark purple color. On the right side of her harness were three spare magazines for her DMR on her back. Under the harness she wore a simple black combat jacket, and along with that she wore black military cargo pants with armored thighs and knees that led into black combat boots. Over her hands she wore a pair of armored gloves, with black metal over the tops of them and along the knuckles.

Lastly on her back, she wore a black military backpack with clips on both sides of it for her two longer-range guns. One was a designated marksman rifle for medium to long range firing, which was an MK14 EBR that was fully matte black with a dual-range sight, and a foldable grip on the bottom rail. It was custom chambered in .458 Socom rounds to deliver a massive punch when needed. On the opposite side was her sniper rifle, a Barrett MRAD bolt-action sniper rifle chambered in .338 Lapua Magnum. On the bottom rail of her sniper rifle was a bipod, and on the right rail was a range finder that was linked to her rifle's large scope which told her the exact range of her targets in her crosshairs The stocks of both her rifles were folded against the bases of them to make them a bit more compact for carrying. Lastly on her right hip was the holster that held her custom .50 AE Desert Eagle, which had a black frame and slide with black grips and silver barrel. Being trained as she was, she can carry all of these weapons easily with little restrictions, but her ammunition stores for each weapon on her person was limited.

Viper brought down two of her target in the facility before she ran inside, taking a few grazes from bullets fired after her along her arms and her sides. She ran into a door that led to lower levels and closed it behind her, locking it with a hacking device she held up to the digital lock of the door. She quickly began to walk down the stairs and descended deeper into the facility, and she eventually found her target.

She quickly attached her silencer back onto her MP5, and she began to go to work in the shadows of the large room. Thanks to her taking out the alarm system before her move on the facility, no one was alerted to her presence this deep underground. Viper worked through the room she was in and put down all the guards she saw, each being taken down with a bullet right to their heads. One by one their bodies slumped to the metal floor, and Viper was soon left as the only one in the room with the experimental technology.

"I'm in," She spoke quietly into her earpiece to her commanding officer, "Time to take this thing out."

"Good work, Viper. Report back to me once you're clear." Came her commander's reply, and she took her finger from her earpiece.

Viper then plugged her hacking device up to the console in the middle of the room, and she began to upload the program that she was given that would make the experimental portal self destruct, along with the entire facility. But, things had not gone exactly to plan. When Viper began to run that program, the portal activated and lit up the room in a bright light. Viper shielded her eyes from it with one hand, and she went to contact her commander once more.

"Commander, something with the program activated the portal!" She was met with static, which turned into a high-pitched sound that began to turn painful before she pulled the earpiece out.

"Attention Personnel. Facility will self destruct in one minute. Please vacate the premises."

The automated voice came through the speakers of the facility, and then the portal's light began to pulsate and the entire thing started to shake wildly. The entire facility began to shake with tremors as well, and many of the shelves and walkways hanging above the edges of the room began to fall down to the ground. Viper began to feel herself being pulled toward the portal soon after, and she began to try to run and escape the area. But, the pull only got stronger and stronger and she found herself unable to resist being sucked toward the portal. Soon, she was pulled off her feet, and with a final scream she disappeared into the portal, just before the self destruct sequence completed and the facility, and the portal, were destroyed.

Officially, Viper had been declared M.I.A. by her commanding officer. Eventually after that, after search parties had been sent out for days, weeks, and months and even up to five years later after Sentinel's downfall, she had been declared K.I.A..

But she wasn't killed.

Almost as soon as Viper had been pulled into the portal, she had ended up in a forest she didn't recognize. She fell to her knees, feeling her stomach lurching within her, and she pulled her mask down just before she began to vomit profusely after she had been pulled through God-knows-what, all the way to what she assumed was some remote part of Auroa. She soon stopped vomiting, and she folded her MP5's stock to put on her left hip, and she took her backpack and rifles off her body so she could lean her back against a tree, breathing deeply as she stared up into the... bright blue sky.

It was nighttime when she last checked. She checked her watch and saw that it said it should have been just past midnight, and she began to grow extremely confused. She put her earpiece back into the ear and pressed her finger against the button. "Commander Black, respond. This is Viper. The portal sucked me into it, and it transported me to some... unknown location during the daytime."

After several moments of radio silence, Viper tried again. "Commander Black, respond. I'm stranded in a forest and I have no idea where I am. I-"

Viper began to hear a growl behind the tree she was leaned up against, and she stopped talking immediately. She slowly glanced around the tree to where the growl came from, and her eyes went wide as she saw some... black-furred werewolf covered in bone plating, and it had glowing red eyes. She jumped to her feet and rolled away from the tree just before it struck, and she pulled her MP5 from her waist and opened fire on the creature's head. In a few shots, the strange beast went down and began to evaporate into the air, and that just confused her even more.

Before she knew it, she noticed more of the creatures surrounding her from all sides. She had no idea what they were at all, but she did her best to fight them off as they came. The 9mm rounds tore into the hide of the beasts but with their attacks, reloading was hard even with dual mags like she had. She ducked out of the way of a strike from one and fired into its face with the last rounds of one magazine before she was struck in the side, knocking her MP5 out of her hands and sending her to the ground with a gash in her arm.

She rolled to her back and quickly pulled out her Desert Eagle, and she blasted one of the beasts in the head. One powerful shot put it down, and then another came at her and she shot and killed it as well. As its evaporating body came down on her, she began to hear gunfire from another source, and she could tell it was a very big gun that was being used. When the beast evaporated fully, she could see each of the others that surrounded her were going down with their heads being blown to bits or their chests were blown out. She glanced around to see who had come to her rescue, and her eyes widened even further when she saw a huge man dressed like someone from a western movie.

She aimed her pistol at him at him trying to determine whether he was friend or foe, and he just looked at her in shock. She soon lowered her gun and nodded to him, and then she saw another of the beasts appear from the bushes behind the man. Before she could give him a warning, the man's weapon transformed into a claymore right before her eyes and with one hard swing and a pull of the trigger, the recoil of the gunshot send the blade straight through the beast's body.

He then put the blade on his back and turned back toward her. "Hey there. You don't look like you're from around here." His deep voice came to her a moment later.

"Where am I? Who are you?" Viper replied, her hands still gripping her pistol.

"Well first off, I should be askin' you that since you brought some Grimm near my property," The man replied to her, crossing his arms over his chest, "My name's Auron. Auron Karmine. What about you?"

"My... codename is Viper. Thank you for helping me."

Auron stepped forward and reached his hand down to her. "I get the feelin' you got a story to tell about why you're here on Remnant. You seem like you're like my daughter's fiance."

"...Rem...nant?" Viper replied in confusion before slowly taking his hand.

Auron chuckled a bit and pulled her to her feet. "That tells me all I need to know. Get your gear, an' I'll take you to my home an' you can explain everything."

"Oh god, this has to be a weird dream..." Viper remarked and went to gather her backpack and her Vector, "What you're suggesting is fucking crazy."

"I wish I could tell ya it was an' you could wake up in your own world, but..." Auron shook his head, "It's as real as that cut on your arm. I know a few more people that came from another universe or world or whatever, an' one of 'em is set to marry my oldest daughter. You got a lot to learn about Remnant here, an' the Grimm. We need to see if we can get your aura unlocked."

"My fucking what?"

Auron took in a deep breath and let it out evenly. "This is gonna be a long day."

[yay855]

I’ve heard people argue that Borderlands 1 is superior to 2 in every way.

Those people are blinded by nostalgia.

To address this, I will go over each and every point to prove, once and for all, that Borderlands 2 is superior to the first game.

* Story

Some people argue that Borderlands 1′s serious story fits the themes of the series better (there are no heroes). I say, what story?

Borderlands 1 has a plot. That much is true. You, the mighty Vault Hunter, must track down the pieces of the Vault Key and open the Vault. Except that’s it. Everything else is filler! Half of the game is spent doing pointless crap that has nothing to do with anything. You hunt down random bandits and animals for no real reason!

The biggest thing to point to for this is the Rakk Hive. The Rakk Hive is supposedly the mid-boss. Except it has literally nothing to do with the story. You kill it because it’s there, because the AI told you to.

Borderlands 2, on the other hand, has an actual story. Handsome Jack is trying to control Pandora once and for all, and it’s your job to stop him, mostly out of revenge for trying to kill you. There are twists and turns and reveals, all of which hinted at by Handsome Jack but in a way that shows he knows something but you don’t know what he’s planning. The Power Core from Wilhelm? Angel? Roland? The Warrior? It all weaves together to make a true story.

* Gameplay

Borderlands 1′s gameplay was, quite frankly, complete shit compared to the sequel. You know why?

In the original Borderlands, your aim with weapons was determined by your skill with that weapon, and using it successfully made your skill go up. While this was good for automatic weapons, the fact remained that a good number of the weapons ingame were semi-auto. And slow to shoot, at that.

Now, this, in and of itself, is not a huge problem. The problem was that your accuracy and your weapon sway did not match. You could shoot along the sights and your bullets would still go flying every which way if you didn’t have max skill with that weapon.

The result is that characters meant to use high-power, low-fire-rate weapons were completely useless. Because you could aim your sniper rifle at someone ten feet away from you, directly at their chest, and it would go flying off to the side unless you already had skill with that weapon. Given that each character starts out with minimum skill with each weapon, and that you have two characters meant to use low-fire-rate weapons, including a sniper, that was a problem.

Revolvers, assault rifles, and especially sniper rifles were 100% useless unless you repeatedly hit people with them point-blank. That is the opposite of how good gunplay works!

Meanwhile, Borderlands 2 throws out that frustrating weapon skill mechanic, and also makes your gun always shoot at where your iron sights/crosshair are pointing. Even sniper rifles with low accuracy can headshot your target, it just takes longer to line up the reticle.

Furthermore, the skills are just plain better. Instead of pure passive bonuses that have very little effect on gameplay that were in 1, 2 gives you unique abilities that change how your character plays. Zero, for example, has a skill at the very end of one of his trees that refreshes his stealth timer if he kills someone while stealthed, allowing him to take out entire bandit camps without being spotted. While Lilith’s final skill in her stealth tree just gives her more melee damage while stealthed.

* Guns and Manufacturers

This is admittedly a rather good point- in Borderlands 1, each weapon manufacturer had a different bonus, such as Dahl, which has higher recoil reduction but lower accuracy. Meanwhile, in 2, many weapon manufacturers have something more unique to them- like Hyperion, which previously increased recoil reduction and accuracy, but now has reverse-recoil, causing your guns to become more accurate the more you fire them. Borderlands 2 also removed the Atlas manufacturer (without replacing it, unlike S&S and Bandit manufacturers), which was known for having better damage and magazine capacity.

I’d argue that, although Hyperion’s quirk is hard to use for most weapons, and Dahl’s quirk makes their sniper rifles useless, the manufacturers are far more distinct than before. A Hyperion shotgun (that doesn’t use up all its ammo in three shots) can be used at mid range if it has fast enough reload, and the rest can be used fairly easily (again, aside from Dahl sniper rifles, which are useless due to the recoil causing every shot but the first to miss unless you’re already super close to the target). In fact, I’d argue that Jakobs and Torque are far better than before- Jakobs is one of the only manufacturers that makes semi-automatic weapons (Dahl and Maliwan make semi-auto pistols, but no one else does), and their weapons are always guaranteed to have very high stats in everything but ammo capacity. Jakobs revolvers and sniper rifles are some of the best weapons in the game, while Torque weapons chew through everything in sight.

And the best part is that, unlike in the first game, where every weapon looked the damn same, Borderlands 2′s weapons have designs fitting their manufacturer. Bandit weapons are painted with intimidating designs and colors and made of random parts strapped together, Dahl weapons are camo green and use military designs, Hyperion uses bright yellow and black, Jakobs has intricately-tooled patterns at higher ranks and is designed after old-west guns, Maliwan uses smooth and rounded parts distinct from all other manufacturers, Tediore uses plaids and other interesting patterns to convey a cheap look, Torque is painted with racing stripes and bright colors and often resembles car parts, and Vladof uses wood and the communist symbol. You can immediately tell what manufacturer a weapon is by examining the colors and parts, even without examining its stats. There is far more pride in owning a weapon with a unique design than just unique stats.

* Characters

One argument against Borderlands 2 is its emphasis on humor. The characters are always joking around and goofing off, and talking at length about why they want you to do their task. That detracts from the greater themes of the series, some say.

I argue otherwise. Borderlands 1 was a very bleak game, both in terms of its nonexistent story, and its characters. Everyone was either upset or apathetic.

Borderlands 2 truly drives home the theme of the series (there are no heroes) with its emphasis on humor and explanations.

See, Borderlands 1 doesn’t really give us characters- they’re more bundles of traits than anything. They have no real life to them. Borderlands 2 makes them people, with goals, likes, etc.

However, Borderlands 2 also makes it extremely clear that they are, and always have been, only slightly less evil than everyone else. Or in some cases, more evil.

Take, for example, Marcus. He’s always been a greedy fellow, but now he’s friendly and cheerful. And he also uses competitors, shoplifters, and other people who upset him as targets in his practice range.

Or Doctor Zed. Yes, he’s helpful, and a dedicated practitioner of medicine, but he’s also completely broken his Hippocratic oath many times over without a care. He harms, kills, and butchers with not a care in the world.

Or Scooter. In Borderlands 1, we only knew he had a bizarre obsession with his mother’s vagina. In 2, we learn that his mother belonged to a very redneck bandit clan who are idiot savants when it comes to vehicles, and (considering she’s still very young despite having two full-grown children and they all have a very passionate hatred for her clan) was likely raped by a family member multiple times at a young age. Oh, and Scooter is just as incestuous as his potential father, but also does not force himself onto others (he instead refuses to accept a no, but he also doesn’t force them to do anything, he just keeps sending them flowers and shitty poetry).

These dichotomies, characters who are friendly and helpful but still very much bad people, is exactly what the games are going for. You are not the hero, you are not a good guy, and neither is anyone you befriend. You are just one more bad person on the planet of Pandora. The only ones who aren’t truly bad people are either insane, or killed off.

And that, my friends, is why Borderlands 2 is superior in every way to Borderlands 1.

[takadasaiko]

Demons at the Door: Chapter Eighteen

FFN II AO3

Summary: Howard and Scottie look for answers, Tom has to face an aspect of his past, and Liz and Agnes are put in the crosshairs.

Chapter Eighteen: Priorities

He was making a deal with the devil to protect his child. That's what Howard Hargrave told himself. They had acknowledged that there might be eyes and ears within Halcyon, and he had a few he questioned himself.

The biggest selling point of Scottie's story was that staying stateside was dangerous for her. Nothing about what she was doing appeared to be helping her, so that left him with a high enough possibility that she was telling the truth that he was willing to take the risk.

That didn't mean he trusted her.

The apartment building was in shambles, half falling down and the residents looked spooked by their own shadows. It reminded Howard of the building Nez's dealers had lived in. Scottie produced a set of lockpicks and went to work, sending the door to apartment 2A swinging open.

The woman on the couch made a startled sound, looking like she might have been reaching for something to use as a weapon, but both Howard and Scottie had their guns trained and she raised her hands slowly.

"Eva Phelps," Scottie greeted, her voice sharp and dangerous.

"I don't know who that is. My name is Vickie. You can see it right on the mailbox down the hall."

"Your name may have changed, but you haven't," Scottie answered and Howard watched her lean down a little closer, effectively pinning her to where she sat. Eva Phelps looked terrified on the surface, but there was something just below that. Something only people like them might pick up on. It was a calculated fear, and Howard would have bet anything that Scottie saw through it too with the way she was pushing. "You took in a boy named Christopher Hargrave in 1988 and you changed his name to Jacob Phelps. You raised him because you were being paid to do so by Miles Ellington."

Eva Phelps froze at that name and Scottie's lips stretched just a little at the corners. "He's been looking for you, hasn't he? You haven't been a priority, but with everything that's happened, you will be. He'll be trying to tie up loose ends, but I got to you first."

"And what does that get me?" the other woman asked.

"A chance. A hope," Scottie corrected, "that you just might survive this. More than Frank got, wasn't it?" She stepped back, her gun still aimed in Eva's general direction, and Howard's gaze flickered to her very briefly. Frank Phelps was dead. Interesting. Even his sources hadn't turned that one up. Even this location was rented out to a husband and wife, as had all the others in Eva Phelps' string of rentals over the years. Her entire papertrail included what Howard had assumed - a dangerous thing to do in their line of work, he reminded himself - was an alias for Frank Phelps. Apparently it had been an attempt to throw people off the trail. "You're going to tell us everything and you're not going to lie. If you do, we will know."

The woman that had raised their son until his teenage years nodded slowly, her gaze shifting back to Howard who lifted a curious eyebrow as she began very slowly. "Frank and I met Miles through a mutual contact. Billy. We owed Billy some money so he set it up so he'd get paid. He said he had a job for us that'd pay ten times what we owed him, so we met with Miles. He didn't give us a lot of details. He said it was better not to know and we agreed, but he said that there was a boy. If anyone found him, we'd be on the hook for everything we were paid. If he died or got away, same thing."

"Incentive to keep him alive and hidden," Howard mused.

"They wanted to use him for something," Eva answered with a shrug. "We agreed to the terms and we were set up with a house in Chicago, the money, and Frank got a cushy job. The kid showed up a week later."

"Was he hurt?"

Howard looked over to Scottie, a little surprised that her voice cracked with the question.

"Not that I could see. Nothing serious, at any rate. He might have been bruised, but nothing too bad. He wouldn't talk though. He just kept staring with those wide blue eyes and wouldn't say a damn thing. He would watch us everywhere we went and just…. Wouldn't stop." She paused, shaking her head a little and howard saw the way her fist clenched in irritation. "They told us to change his name to Jacob. He had no idea what his name was anyway, so he answered to that pretty quickly."

"He ran away at fourteen," Howard said and Eva's attention jerked over to him. "Why?"

"Why do teenage boys do anything? He never did like us."

"Remember what we said about lying," Scottie said, her head tilted just a little to the side.

"Frank had a drinking problem. He roughed him up every now and again. Nothing bad enough that we'd risk any real damage."

Howard resisted the urge to roll his eyes, pieces of the truth wrapped so deeply up in how she wanted to present it that it would be a wonder if there was any truth there at all. "How was he delivered?"

"Just a man."

"Describe him."

"Tall. Well dressed. He was blond… maybe a redhead. I don't remember many details. It's been nearly thirty years. Would you remember any details?"

"Every last one," Scottie answered sharply.

"Well I don't. Sucks for you, doesn't it? Go ahead and shoot me. Miles wouldn't have let me live if he found me, but he sure as hell won't now. Shoot me or call the cops."

"I think we have somewhere better for you," Howard answered and pulled his phone out and dialed a number.

The phone rang once, twice, and he was greeted by an irritable voice. "I'm hoping you have a really good explanation. Tom's on his way."

"I assumed he would be, but right now I need you to call in to the local police department to assist in an arrest."

"Who were you tracking, Howard?"

"A woman involved in my son's kidnapping. We're in 2A. Call it in and meet me up here." There was a long pause and Howard sighed. "I know I haven't been completely straight with you, Nez, and I understand your hesitation, but right now I need you to trust me."

There was a pause and then a sigh from the other end. "Fine. I'm on my way up."

He ended the call and Scottie shot him a questioning look. "You didn't mention me."

"The moment I did all resources would have been fixed on bringing you in. She-" he motioned to Eva- "is the priority here."

Scottie nodded and started past him, but Howard reached out and caught her arm. "I expect you to tell me who Ellington is," he said very lowly.

"I'll be in touch." She paused very briefly. "Howard, she knows. Don't take any less for an answer."

He watched her go, and he knew his time was limited until Nez joined him. He caught Eva Phelps' gaze and held it, watching her swallow hard. "I've told you everything I know. I don't know who delivered him."

"I think you do," Howard said slowly, his smile just a little dangerous. "I never gave up on finding my boy. I've had investigators looking into it for years. I've seen his records. Police, social services, and medical." He let the last one sink in for half a beat. "I know everything you two did to him, Eva, even the things you didn't bother with a doctor for. I told you that you shouldn't lie to me."

By the time Tom arrived there were police cars parked outside of the old apartment building. That must have been why it had been so difficult to reach Nez. He climbed the stairs and froze when he saw who they were leading out of the apartment.

It had been fifteen years since he'd seen the woman's face. It had aged, but those grey eyes were still cold, dark hair now streaked silver, and she was grumbling and cursing the whole way down the hall, looking like she'd put up a fight somewhere along the way. The police that were escorting her stopped and she looked at him like she knew exactly who he was.

"Excuse us," the officer said, and Tom realized he'd paused at the top of the stairs, blocking their exit.

He watched Eva Phelps watch him from the corner of her eye as she passed by, but the sound of his name drew his attention down the hall. Nez motioned him in and he found Howard going through a bag that contained cash, ID's, and a gun on the coffee table in what must have been the Phelps' livingroom. He swallowed hard. "Someone want to fill me in?"

"A new lead presented itself," Howard said as he sorted through thing things he had found. Someone had given him gloves to keep his own fingerprints off of it. Well, at least the fact that they weren't hauling him off too meant that Nez had been able to keep his little field trip quiet. The last thing they needed was to add one more complication to the whole mess.

"You're going to have to give me more than that. What does Eva Phelps have to do with this?"

His father looked up, blinking hard as if pulling himself from what he'd been doing. "Ms Phelps was hired by a man named Miles Ellington to hide you away after you were taken as a child."

The words rolled off his tongue so easily that they might as well have been talking about a case that meant nothing to them personally, but Tom felt a knot forming in the pit of his stomach. "She what?"

"Mm. This Ellington-"

"I don't know who that is."

"Neither do I yet, but we will. Ellington, it would seem, has a connection of some sort to your mother. He paid the Phelps' to adopt you and keep you hidden. When you ran at fourteen and they couldn't track you down, they did their best to disappear. It sounds like Ellington killed Frank, but we got to Eva before he could." He looked up and his expression was focused. "We're getting close, Tom."

"You should never have chased the lead down yourself. You're supposed to be under house arrest. If the Board finds out-"

"They won't."

"Why didn't you bring this to me?"

"There wasn't time."

"What are you not saying, Howard?" Nez asked, crossing her arms over her chest and leveling a glare at her mentor.

Howard looked just a little sheepish and relented. "Scottie tracked her down and I had eyes and ears on the lookout for her."

"Why the hell is she still in the country?" Nez demanded.

"My question exactly. I knew that if she was going to Eva, there had to be a reason."

"And what was that reason? Where's Scottie now?"

Clear blue eyes glanced back over at Tom and his father tried for a reassuring smile. "This was more important, son. You'll have to trust me on that. Your mother believes there is someone on the Board that was involved with your disappearance. The man that delivered you to the Phelps' home for this man that orchestrated all of this."

Tom tilted his head a little. "And you believe her?"

"I believe that there's a reason she stayed when she could have slipped away and never looked back. She knew that the Board would tie us up and that they'd never have the know-how to find her themselves. She could have used that and she could have vanished, yet here she was looking for answers about your disappearance."

"What are you saying?" Nez asked carefully. "You of all people trust Scottie now?"

Howard choked out a laugh. "Absolutely not, but that doesn't mean that her motives aren't… complicated."

"Okay, so for the sake of argument, let's say Scottie was right and there's someone on the Board that is some sort of mole," Nez said pointedly, shooting Tom a look that he was sure was supposed to remind him that she'd been trying to get him to look at that angle for a while now. "How do we proceed without tipping them off?"

"Eva Phelps knows who it is," Howard said. "She won't say yet, but she knows."

"Have her transferred to a blacksite, not to headquarters," Tom said firmly. "Once she understands that we're all she has, she'll fold. It won't take much. Howard, get back home before the Board hears that you're out. Do you have any idea where Scottie went?"

"No."

"Did she say anything?"

His gaze darted past Tom and his voice dropped just a little. "That she'd be in touch with details on Ellington."

"You think she will be?"

Howard paused just a moment, his brows drawing together. "Twenty-four hours ago I would have told you I knew exactly what your mother was playing towards. Now… I'm not sure."

The honest confession helped to ease at least a little of the frustration Tom was feeling towards him at the moment, but certainly not all of it. "If she gets in touch with you, I want to know. You want me to trust you on this, Dad, give me a reason to. Please."

"I'll call you."

Tom nodded. "Thank you. You need an escort or can you get back in on your own?"

"I'll be able to slip in easier on my own. Take Nez with you to handle Eva."

He wasn't sure he wanted anyone in the room with him when he faced Eva Phelps, but if someone needed to be there, at least it would be someone he trusted. Tom nodded and motioned to Nez. They had to move quickly before something else blew up in their face.

Howard had told him several months ago that his entire life had prepared him for what was ahead with Scottie and Halcyon, but Tom didn't think that even his father had known just how much that was turning out to be true.

Tom had never liked Frank and Eva. They were cold on their best days, cruel on any other. He thought he remembered crying over it early on. He'd been young and terrified. The first couple of years in their home were vague at best, so he couldn't quite pinpoint the day he'd realized that crying wasn't going to help him. Somewhere along the way it'd become clear that the only way he was going to survive the experience was to bury what he was feeling - even what he was thinking - as deep as he could. He had to be stronger than them. He had to be tougher than them. Then, when that hadn't worked, he'd decided that he just had to be smarter than them. That had been much easier when all was said and done.

The name Halcyon Aegis pulled a lot of weight in law enforcement for being a private organization. Eva Phelps was delivered to a blacksite that they had and Tom squared his shoulders as he entered, guards moving out of his way and Nez following in just behind him. He made sure his mask of indifference was firmly in place before he entered, mind focused on everything that they'd uncovered so far in that hellhole that she'd been living in.

She was cuffed to a chair in the middle of a room and Nez stopped at the door just inside, Tom moving forward and holding Eva's gaze. "I want a lawyer," she told him firmly.

"I'm not a cop. You don't get a lawyer."

That seemed to startle her and she squinted against the shadowy room at him. "I'll be damned. I thought it might be you. Come back for something, Jacob? You missed Frank by a good eight years."

"But you got away. We found your go-bag. There was enough in there to slip away at a moment's notice. Too bad you didn't have a moment's notice, isn't it? Tell me about the man that brought me to you and Frank."

"I'm not telling you anything. What are you going to do, you little punk?"

Tom snorted, the taunt nowhere near her best, but she was rattled. Good. "Okay, then this is how it's going to work. I'm going to give you up to the police. You'll get a lawyer, but you're also going to get your name and the details of who has you in custody plastered all over the television. How long do you think you're going to last? I can tell you that whoever these people are… they have people on the inside. Scottie found them. My guess is that you will too, and you're a hell of a lot less useful to them alive than she was."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Really? That's where you think I'll draw the line? Eva, I'll toss you to the wolves faster than you can blink. You can rot in hell for all I care. Give me something to convince me not to and you might get out of this in one piece."

The woman that he'd hated for so many years gave a dry laugh. "You are your mother's son, aren't you? Halcyon can't protect me. These people are in Halcyon."

"Halcyon may not be able to, but we can," Nez said from behind Tom and Eva's gaze shifted back to her, the wheels turning as she considered her options.

"I don't remember his name, but he was a friend of Susan and Howard Hargraves'. Someone in their company they trusted. Someone you knew. Tall, redheaded -"

"McKinney," Tom breathed.

"That sounds right."

"Don't move," he told her sharply and motioned for Nez to step outside with him. He closed the door behind them and kept his voice hushed. "We need to handle this now."

"How exactly do you want to do that? McKinney holds almost as much power in the company as you do right now and a hell of a lot more trust with the other Board members. I'd say go to the feds with it, but Lamb's still out of commission after Scottie's escape."

"We're not going to the New York branch. I'm calling Liz. She's been wanting to help. This is how we do it."

"You'll be putting a bullseye on her."

"She's already got one with this. Looping her in keeps her safer. Give me a minute to make the call and I want you to secure Eva here. No one takes her."

"Got it."

Tom stepped away, pulling his cell from his pocket and hitting the speed dial. "Keen."

"It's me. Where are you?"

"Agnes and I are making a dinner run. Everything okay? Did you find Howard?"

"Yeah. He chased after Scottie, who was tracking down Eva Phelps."

"Your adopted mother Eva Phelps?"

"Same one."

"Why?"

"It's a long story. I'll tell you everything, but we've got a problem that we're going to need your help with if Cooper'd be willing."

"What's going on?"

"We just got ahold of some evidence that one of Halcyon's leading Board members is dirty. Might have even been part of my kidnapping. Albert McKinney."

"I met him the other day after Scottie got away. I knew something was off about that man. Cooper'll want to talk to you and get all the details, but I bet we can convince him to help."

"Good. I had Eva transferred to a blacksite in DC to make it easier. Go straight to the Post Office and I'll meet you-"

The sound of shouting and tires squealing from the other side of the phone caused him to swallow the rest of the sentence and for just a moment everything slowed nearly to a stop as he listened to what was happening without being able to do a damn thing to stop it. There was a crash and everything went silent. "Liz? Liz!"

Nothing. Tom pulled the phone away from his ear to see the call was still connected, but his wife wasn't answering his shouts. The phone was still active though.

He ended the call and Dumont answered two rings later. "It's Tom. I need you to trace Liz's cell phone and send an ambulance."

"What? Why?"

"I think she was just in a wreck. Send me her location as soon as you have it."

"On its way, boss," Dumont answered. "Good luck."

Tom didn't answer as he took off in a full sprint to the vehicle they'd come in, his wife and little girl's location on his texts and praying to whoever might be listening that he wasn't too late.

Notes: Someone left a review saying that they hoped that someone had a detail on Liz and all I could do was smile because this chapter had already been written. I'm so glad that you guys seem to be enjoying this! I love getting to wrap the Redemption group and the main show's group together and work with all the various characters, and teaming Scottie and Howard up has been more fun than even I expected, and I had some pretty high hopes there. Definitely more of that to come.

Next time - Scottie makes good on her promise, the blacksite comes under attack, and Tom finds himself in more trouble than he expected.