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fakegingerrights · 2 years ago

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Walk By Faith (7)

[A/N: We're finally starting to get somewhere with this! TW for mentions of Concussions and physical violence (choking)]

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Crosshair was silent on the ride back to Kamino, not a word to his squad except a muttered thanks when ES-03 gave him a water pouch.

He knew he looked awful, but most of the damage was surface level. His armor took the brunt of it. With his newly fixed helmet, he examined his injuries, noting the faintest outline of dusty handprints under his shoulders and similar dust drag marks on his legs and presumably his back as well. His whole body was covered in what felt like a minor sunburn, with some more scaly bits on his right side that stung and were beginning to itch.

Tech had known he needed his helmet to see. Had known how to fix his helmet. He had also, presumably, dragged him away from the blast of the ion engine or his burns would be way worse.

"An anonymous contact. I... don't think they're too fond of the empire. But they were willing to help you. More than willing."

"My contact was the one who came up with this, one of the first implantless neural networks of this scale."

Tech was the genius. Hunter was the strategist. Kriff, even Wrecker was brilliant when it came to weapons and explosives.

But Crosshair was no slouch either, and right now several pieces were falling into place. Tech was currently on the run from the empire. Tech was stupidly sentimental in his own right when it came to his brothers. Tech helped build Echo's upgraded hardware.

Tech knew enough about neural networks to devise a helmet like his.

Tech loved him enough to do this.

Tech lead him on a wild krayt chase

Tech was looking out for him still.

He didn't need Tech's protection.

Damn it you Cha'kaar, just admit you miss them!

Crosshair shook his head roughly, wincing as his vision glitched and flickered. He was getting a headache. But he had just figured out something more important than his current discomfort. Tech was your contact. You had been working with traitors.

You were a traitor. You had to be. You had to have known.

The white halls of Kamino jittered and glitched as he stalked down them towards the medical bay. He knew he needed to get checked out, but he was looking for you.

Traitor. You were a traitor. Was he a traitor?

Crosshair’s breathing was unnaturally loud in his ears as he staggered and fell to his knees. When had his vision cut out?

He ripped his helmet off. Salt stung his raw, burnt face as he gasped for air. Distant footsteps echoed around his head, muffled words, a familiar voice, was saying something. To him?

“-ss, vod, you’re hyperventilating.”

Echo? Was that Echo’s voice? No. Different reg.

“Bev?” He croaked, turning towards the sound. Hands gripped his shoulders, pulling him to his feet by his breastplate. His balance was strange. Bev was solid beside him, taking most of his weight and helping him to an exam room, shutting the curtain behind him and guiding him to a cot.

“Can I get you out of that armor, Crosshair?” Bev asked, keeping his hand on his shoulder.

Crosshair shook his head, murmuring your name softly as he tried to get his addled brain into focus. Bev kept his hold on Crosshair's shoulder as he paged you discretely. He checked him over for a concussion and started getting bacta on the burns on his cheeks. Crosshair flinched every time the cold gel touched him, still staring vacantly into the distance. Well, even more so than he normally did.

"Crosshair?”

He gave a start. Bev was tapping on his shoulder, against the grey-coated plating. “I really need to examine you.”

Mutely, Crosshair nodded. Bev’s quick fingers caught the catches of his breastplate, making quick work of the plates. A knock on the door startled both of them.

“Maker, what happened to you?” You breathed, stepping into the room and taking in his soot covered and burned face and the littered injuries around his body. You moved to help Bev with your patient’s plates, but as soon as your fingers brushed him he snapped into motion.

His hand wrapped around your throat as he slammed you into the medical bench, cutting off your airway. His eyes were glazed over and his face stony. Even blind, his eyes bored into yours with frightening intensity.

Bev was quick to react, yanking Crosshair off of you and stepping between you two. Crosshair snarled, his face a mask of fury.

“Traitor.” He snarled at you, moving to lunge but Bev held him back.

“Your Doctor is no traitor.” He hissed, holding Crosshair away. Crosshair went limp, all the fight draining away as fast as it had come. His knees buckled and Bev was quick to catch him.

You were sitting up, rubbing your throat and coughing weakly. Dark bruises were forming, but it could definitely be worse.

“What’s going on?” You demand, your voice croaking and hoarse.

“Not sure. He’s been off the whole time.” Bev said sharply, draping him back on the cot and jabbing a port into Crosshair's hand, holding him to the bed with his off hand as he paws through his bag looking for a sedative that wouldn't be too dangerous if his outburst was caused by a concussion. Crosshair didn't fight, just laying limp where he was left, his eyes wide and empty as his chest heaved. Hyperventilating.

Slowly, whatever Bev managed to give him took effect and his eyes slowly drifted closed, his panting slowing into the slow, metronome steady rhythm of sleep.

"Let me see your neck." Bev asked quietly, pulling out a tube of bacta.

"I'm alright." You rasp, but tilt your head to the side and let him apply a thin layer of the stuff, even though it wouldn't do much since there were no open wounds. Still, the pleasant cooling sensation was a relief on the fresh marks. "I'm... more worried about him, honestly."

"I know. I'm... anxious, about letting him back into the field. I was before but this confirms my worries even more. He needs help. Those chips alter your thought patterns and hormone levels to reduce trauma and depression symptoms, as well as any underlying mental illnesses. You saw how much of a mess I was after removing mine, but the special units go through literal hell in training." Bev rambled a bit, pulling out his datapad.

"I'm going to fudge his papers a bit. He needs rest. I'm marking him down as concussed and confused, explaining his violent outburst and get him put up in his current quarters with a 'treatment' plan. How's renovations coming along?" He looked up at you expectantly.

"...Better. I have the bed put together and everything, but I got a little distracted on my latest project." You explained, glancing back at Crosshair's pale form. Even asleep and drugged, there was a tension in him that hadn't quite left. A crease between his brows that never quite smoothed out.

You startled at your name, Bev placing a hand on your shoulder. "I know that look. You can't save them all. Doctor, I'm not even sure you can save him."

"Bev I can't just... I have to do this. This isn't..." You shook your head in frustration. "Where's his helmet. His face is damaged so his helmet must be too."

"He had torn it off in the hall. I left it there in favor of getting it to you. I'll go retrieve it." Bev offered, leaving you alone in the room with Crosshair. You took it upon yourself to get the thin blanket pulled up over him and arranged him in a more comfortable position.

As you went to adjust his thin pillow slightly, his eyes fluttered open, staring right through you. As if sensing your hesitation, he rolled his head towards you, a sigh catching in his rough throat as his temple connected with your hand. Some of the tension left his face.

"I forgive you." You murmur, not sure how aware he was. "We'll talk later, but I forgive you." You stroked his hair gently, fine silver curls soft under your fingertips. And sooty. Grey streaks were left on your fingertips.

"Here's his helmet, Doc." Bev called from the doorway. "Go nuts."

You caught the dirty gray helmet, instantly seeing where part of it had been smashed in and torn away. Wires had obviously been repaired after coming loose.

Tucked under them was a note that made your blood freeze.

"To the doctor in charge of CC 9904, otherwise known as Crosshair. And to me, I call him 'Brother.'....."

Crosshair ached all over. There was a strange weight on the forefront of his face, across his nose and around his eyes. He felt bruised and burned across his entire body. There was the sound of soft snores nearby, higher than a brothers' and feminine.

On instinct, he opened his eyes as he sat up wincing at first from the sharp pain in his ribs and back then blinking in the dim light of his room.

Oh. That was new.

A trembling hand reached up to investigate the weight on his face he couldn't see, fingers bumping against smooth metal and glass an inch from his cheekbones. Glasses? No. Goggles. They felt remarkably like the ones Tech wore.

The ones that pressed into his nose as he pressed his forehead against his brother's, the brother who had taken a shot meant for him

Ones that had often ended up digging into his shoulder as he and Wrecker wrangled Tech from his workbench to sleep

Goggles that-

Crosshair dug the heel of his palm into his forehead in an attempt to stop the haunting memories. He instantly hissed and lightened the contact, flipping his hand over to press the chronically icy backs of his fingers against his too hot face.

At his hiss, the snoring stopped and there was the sound of shifting fabric off to his right. You were curled up in a chair that hadn't been there before, stretching and rubbing your eyes. Now that he could see it, the entire room was different from when he had been here last. His bed had been changed, the mattress soft and thick beneath him. The blankets still smelled like sunshine rather than bleach, but there were more of them.

The closet doors had been pulled off, and now he could see a well stocked with civilian clothes. Male, civilian clothes. The desk by his bed had a lamp on it, off currently. There was also a window that he hadn't noticed, high above his bed. For once, it was sunny out on Kamino, lighting up the room without the need for lights.

"You're awake..." You yawned, stretching your arms over your head and running a hand through your hair, making a face as your fingers caught on a snarl from sleeping in a chair. "How're you feeling?"

"... Tired. Not... I don't know. And sore." He grumbled, wincing at the sound of his own voice. "What time is it?"

"Early morning. You've been asleep for a day and a half or so. Even after whatever Bev hit you with wore off." You explained, popping all your joints you could reach as you stood up, sighing in relief as the cracks sounded in the room.

"... I hurt you." He admitted, glancing at your neck. The bruises were faded thanks to the bacta, but he could still see them. "I... " He fumbled for an explanation, icy fear prickling at his neck. He could be decommissioned for that.

"You're forgiven, Crosshair." You broke him out of his building panic. "I know why you did it. Tech... left a note tucked into your helmet."

"Oh..." Crosshair wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"It... explained a lot of things. I thought I was a loyal citizen of the empire. I was so sure... The jedi had been traitors. That we had done the right thing. But those chips... I saw how it affected Bev. They're horrible. I don't know what to believe now."

Crosshair's hackles rose as he stared at you incredulously.

"I'm... me and Bev had a conversation. Bev and I. Whatever. I'm going to give you a choice."

You held up three fingers.

"One. You stay with the empire. Me and Bev will vanish, marked as traitors to the Empire. Neither us will fault you for that." You ticked off one finger, stepping closer. "Two. We tell the empire you're dead. You're sent back with your brothers. You go home with them." Another finger, another step. You're standing right next to the bed. Crosshair stares at you, pupils wide behind his new goggles. He looked so much like his brother right now. Your eyes traced over his tattoo.

"Three. We go with the plan Tech suggested. You stay here with us. We work to take the empire down from the inside out."

Crosshair starts, eyes going wide. He quickly looks down at his lap, fidgeting aimlessly with his hands.

Tech's plan.

Tech had a plan for him.

His brothers had a plan.

He wasn't alone.

"... I like option three." He muttered down at his lap. He jumped slightly as you put a hand on his shoulder.

"Welcome home, Commander Crosshair."

Crosshair hesitated, then leaned into the touch. "... Glad to be back." And he was. For the first time in a long, long while, Crosshair felt like himself.

Taglist:

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#soft crosshair #the bad batch #tbb crosshair #crosshair x reader #tbb crosshair x reader #crosshair imagine #tbb crosshair imagine #hurt/comfort #crosshair #WalkByFaith #GingerWrites #now we're getting somewhere #God I hate slowburns.#My arch nemisis #patience

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candont · 1 year ago

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Liu Bai Yuan, Republican Assassin Supplementary Chronicle of Liu Bai Yuan

Both of these stories involves a character named “Liu Bai Yuan”. However, they’re different people from a lineage of assassins using the code name “Bai Yuan” (White Ape, 白猿). The backstory is that there was an old professional assassin group where all the members use “Bai Yuan” as their first name. Therefore a member with the surname of Liu calls himself “Liu Bai Yuan”. The group hid in the mountains in Manchuria for a long time, occasionally assassinating important officials throughout history and existence only known to few. They composed a book on assassination, with the first half on justifying the assassination of national leaders. The book was immediately banned. The Jurchens sought out their help in unifying Manchuria, and after the Qing Dynasty was established the emperor, knowing how dangerous they were, sent troops to their lair to destroy them, to the extent that they set fire on the mountain where the lair was located. While the mission seemed successful as the troops found 123 bodies and no one fled, the early Qing emperors all died mysterious, violent deaths, and KangXi also suffered from numerous attempts on his life, hinting that maybe someone survived. However, after YungZheng’s death, the later attempts on the succeeding emperors showed a drop in skill, which might indicate that the last of the Bai Yuans have finally died out.

In Liu Bai Yuan, Republican Assassin the story is setted in the early Republican era of China when warlords were still high in power. It starts with the death of Yuan ShihKai (who attempted to end the Republican era and be Emperor of China), presumed to have died of illness. In fact, he was assassinated by a miniature arrow shot. The assassin was hunted down and shot in the chaos, and the Bai Yuan assassination book was found in his possessions. The Premier, another warlord, fearing his own life, ordered his most loyal guard to study the book in 10 days. 10 days later the guard disappeared. It is not until 15 years later the guard returned to the Premier and related his experiences on how he trained himself and worked as a Xia, assassinating evil characters all over the place, and following the principles mentioned in the book. However, after a failed attempt, he hid at a factory, befriended and kind of developed hidden feelings on a woman, which influenced his actions in the later part of the story where the woman wants to avenge her father’s death, and the guard wants to act before her to protect her life from the law. The woman in this story is Shi Jianqiao: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Jianqiao

In Supplementary Chronicle of Liu Bai Yuan the story is about a boy who met Liu BaiYuan and inherited his skills and name. The timeframe seems to be inconsistent with the other story so likely this is an independent work.

This story focuses on the assassination of Yang XingFo, an early human rights activist of China.

-https://wuxiasociety.freeforums.net/thread/426/hiding-behnd-blade-xu-haofeng

#emphasis mine #xu haofeng #hiding behind the blade #judge archer #bai yuan #white ape #wuxia #now we're getting somewhere

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