Chapter Text
“So… will he make a full recovery?” Feral asked Thimble once the man left Crosshair’s room, “I can smell the purge chemicals and that… masks everything else so…”
“He’ll be alright, the purge was successful and any residue left will be purged by the body itself.” Thimble replied with a smile on his voice, “He’s running on altered states of awareness as his body tries to figure out what the kark happened but that will run its course quickly.”
“That… that’s great.” He relaxed.
“I also had a look at his head while I was at it, given where it is I can hazard a guess that if he had a chip present then it was likely cooked by the ion engine.” He felt his stomach drop at the information, “That and he was poorly treated afterwards, which explains the headaches he’s been getting.”
“Will he be able to… function normally?” He wasn’t sure he wanted to know because they would lose Crosshair if he couldn’t be independent and able to do everything himself.
“Luckily we caught it early and AZI-3 treated him quickly.” Thimble sighed, “Any longer and there might have been permanent nerve damage, meaning the shakes would intensify and make living a normal life far more difficult… but the tremors have greatly diminished since the purge, he will have minor shakes for a while but they should clear up on their own.”
“Thank you for this Thimble.” He nodded, “Linara was correct in her faith about you.”
“She has a habit of taking in wayward clones doesn’t she?” Thimble’s voice carried his warm smile.
“That she does.” He smiled in return.
“Did you hear that she and Anani have adopted two kids?” He paused at the information, “A young bothan girl and a human boy.”
“And she never told me!” He laughed after a moment, “I need to visit and get to know them.”
“Fives is the cool uncle right now, so you have a lot of leg work to overthrow his reign.” Thimble laughed in return.
“Anything is possible out there.” He grinned, “I’m happy for them and those kids are really lucky, if anyone could raise them right it would be Linara and Anani.”
“Agreed, now, I have a patient to visit.” Feral tilted his head in confusion, “The people here are taking full advantage of having a medic and requesting my aid left, right and centre.”
“Then I won’t keep you.” He nodded.
“Mm.” Thimble replied and left the area.
“Hm.” Feral sighed, then returned his attention to the Batch’s home, to the chemical smell coming from his ori’vod… he trusted Thimble and his scent, he believed whole heartedly that Crosshair would be okay and would be able to live as he used to.
He sighed again as he fidgeted with his cloak, now that he got the information on Crosshair all he had to do was find Hunter and talk with his eldest brother, the thought terrified him and he wasn’t sure he could do it… “Gonk!” He smiled at the honk of his best friend.
“Hey Gonky.” He smiled and hugged the droid.
“Gonk!” Gonky replied, “Gonk?” His best friend nudged him gently obviously confused as to why Feral hadn’t let go of him.
“I’m scared to talk with Hunter… what if he talks… what if he doesn’t and just ignores me for ever?” He replied shakily.
“Gonk!” Gonky replied and nudged him again.
“You’ll come with me?” He asked earning a bounce from Gonky but before the droid could vocalise they were interrupted by R4 arriving and whistling at him, “You coming too R4?” He smiled when R4 went on a rant about how much of a dick Hunter was being and if he had his way Hunter would have a taser shoved so far up his ass that his stupid enhancement would crap its pants, “Please don’t…” He chuckled weakly as he stood up straight, he had back up here and if he was to face Hunter and Hunter turned on him then he had two droids willing to kick the tar out of Hunter. With a determined nod he started his trek to find Hunter, following his scent through the streets as Gonky and R4 moved with him, surprisingly R4 was willing to go at Gonky’s pace and not go screaming through the streets in his hurry to find and tase Hunter, “I can do this.” He repeated as they approached the older clone’s scent marker, “I’ve faced the scariest things in the Galaxy… I’ve done so much… I can do this.”
“Gonk!” Gonky encouraged him as R4 whistled in determination.
“Hunter.” He said firmly once they’d arrived, the older clone was talking to Mayor Hazard, “We need to talk… now.”
“Ah, this seems a very personal moment, I will leave you two alone.” Mayor Hazard said after a moment, then left the area.
“You’re avoiding me… you’re treating me like the enemy and I don’t know why…” He finally managed to find the words to tell Hunter how he made him feel, “It’s to the point where I can’t go looking for our brothers because every time I find them you’re talking to them and… and you keep making me the bad guy!” Hunter didn’t reply which made Feral even more upset and a little angry, “All I want to know is what I did wrong? Once I have that then… then I’ll leave… go away from here so you won’t keep treating me like dirt!”
Still Hunter said nothing.
“Answer me!” He yelled, “Speak now or forever lose the option!” He didn’t want to leave here, to leave all his brothers because Hunter couldn’t look at him and see the little brother he left behind on that Venator.
“What the kark is going on in here?” Echo asked as he and Fives arrived.
“I tried Hunter… I tried everything I could to be something close to what I was when we parted ways but nothing I do will ever be enough… will it?” He hiccupped as he grabbed his arm.
“Gonk!” He was nudged by his best friend until he let go.
“Hunter, answer him.” Echo said.
“You want to know how I feel about you?” Hunter finally spoke, “Okay… you’re rude, disobedient and you act like you’re bigger than you are, you may think you’re a big deal but here you are not the big bad mercenary, you are a kid who’s too big for his boots.” Feral felt his world stop, “I’ve tried to accommodate you but every time I think we’re making progress you act all superior to us, well you’re not.”
“I…” He lost his words as his emotions tried to figure out what they were trying to feel, he backed up and ended up hitting R4.
“Stay out of this droid.” Hunter hissed at R4 when he started defending Feral.
“You see… this is why I feel safer with… these two droids and… and Minnow.” He finally found his words, “You won’t have to deal with me then… you stay out of my way and I’ll… I’ll stay out of yours.” He swallowed down his emotions and left the area, he heard the yelp of pain that followed the zap of R4’s taser before the two droids followed after him, “If… if the others want to say hi then… they can come to me.” He said as he went down towards the dock area where he could hear children laughing and running around. He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting on the pier but the sun’s warmth was starting to fade, so it was probably coming up on dusk, R4 and Gonky were still with him but they were quiet as he tried to wrangle everything he’d been told by Hunter, they had been doing so well and there had to be more to it than a single joke, was something wrong with Hunter? Was something wrong with Feral and Hunter could feel it? Was he so worried about Crosshair that he was taking it out on Feral under the assumption that Feral wouldn’t tell him where to shove it like he used to do when he was a small clone who was so lost and broken?
“Heard the zap from down here.” He jumped a little at the appearance of Wrecker, “He didn’t mean it, he’s just under a lot of stress and it dumping it on everyone else.”
“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.” He sighed as Wrecker sat down beside him.
“Yeah… but no matter what happens with him, you’ve got everyone else who all love you and accept the you that you’re now.” Wrecker wrapped his arm around his small shoulder and gave him a gentle squeeze.
“Thanks big guy.” He smiled and leaned into Wrecker.
“I would imagine that a taser would be doubly effective on one such as Hunter.” Tech said as he arrived and plopped down on Feral’s other side, “Given his enhancement.”
“The zygerrian zap whips didn’t do any additional damage though.” Wreaker was frowning.
“True but those are meant to keep slave under control, R4 seems to have used his taser to cause damage.” Tech replied earning a maniacal laugh from the droid followed by the zapping of his taser.
“Droid tasers are not fun.” They all froze at the appearance of Crosshair’s voice and the tapping of crutches.
“We’re going to need a bigger pier soon.” Wrecker laughed.
“I doubt either Thimble or AZI will be happy about you being here Crosshair.” Tech said and Feral could hear him fixing his goggles.
“My brother needs me, sitting in a bed won’t help.” Crosshair replied sharply and he squeezed himself between Feral and Tech, “Especially since Hunter’s being a dick and blaming it on being worried about me.”
“This will not help his worry.” Tech was frowning now.
“He can get his ass down here and give out to me in person if he’s that worried.” Crosshair hissed as he wrapped his arm around Feral, after worming his arm between Feral and Wrecker.
“Thanks guys.” He was happy it was only them on the pier because no matter how much he loved the others… sometimes he just wanted his family with him, “I know I’m not the little clone I was when we parted ways… but I’m trying to be better than what I became.”
“You’re better than you give yourself credit for.” Wrecker said, “And if Hunter can’t see that then he’s wrong.”
“I… I just want him to accept me and… try to accept that I’m not the same anymore, that he could find some love for me now…” He sighed, “But I guess my time away has made that impossible.” He hated that they couldn’t work as a family anymore, it hurt his heart more than he could ever put into words, “I just want to know what I did wrong.”
“You… didn’t do anything wrong kid.” He froze at the appearance of Hunter’s voice, “I… was wrong to say those things and nothing will make up for them but… I do want to accept you, even if it’s hard.” He was pretty sure Echo had torn Hunter a new one, “We are a family and I don’t want to be the one who drives us apart.”
“Hunter…” He tried to find his words but they left him.
“I have to adapt to this new dynamic and that is going to be difficult after everything but… we are a family and that means we stick together through thick and thin, even if the parts don’t go together as they used to.” Hunter sat down on Wrecker’s other side, “This is a new life, a new existence and it’s different to everything we’ve endured and survived.”
“Jorso'ran kando a tome.” He said with a smile, “We shall bear its weight together.”
“Because we’re a family!” Wrecker laughed loudly, “And you know what they say about families? We stick together!”
“Like glue!”