Sharp Edges: Crosshair x Reader [NSFW]

Kaller

Author's Note: Still messing around with an AU timeline here... Hopefully you can track with us (please feel free to ask questions if there's any confusion!!) but we're rewriting the end of TCW and the path of TBB... A bit of a fix-it fic, following the theme of self-indulgence.

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Within a week, a plethora of chip deactivators were cycling through the clone army. Rex and Cody had established a flawless plan of distribution, and Tech's addition of instructions had only hastened the process. Many of the clones that had been reached had continued in their duties, knowing no other life and imagining that a chip wouldn't change much of anything, with the war still going on. Many more had undertaken the task of scanning and deactivating their chips, however, and some had run off, disappearing into whatever free lives they wanted to pursue, but so far there weren't enough outwardly significant changes to alert whoever was behind the chip conspiracy.

The 501st had been sent on a particularly harrowing mission, left with a ruthlessly careless Jedi general who had no regard for clone lives, while their assigned generals had been called elsewhere. Apparently within five minutes of meeting their new leader (some fat-necked toad sort of thing, according to Jesse), Hardcase had decided he was done, with all of it. After they were ordered to execute a full-frontal assault ("dumbass-induced suicide", as Kix dubbed it) on a majorly fortified enemy outpost, the rest were ready to defect as well. They took all remaining transports off the planet, intending to leave General Krell behind, but Rex insisted that they allow him to board one of the LA-ATs. As they were soaring toward the sky, Rex stumbled from a bit of turbulence and knocked Krell right out the door – watching him fall all the way back to the surface and land on a vixus, whose tentacles and large, sharp-toothed mouth sprang into action as soon as he made contact. Rex had apologized to the men profusely, wondering just what had happened for him to lose his grip like that, although the grin that he could barely smother when recounting the story to Fives and Tup later left no doubts as to his intentions.

Meanwhile, Crosshair had been gone with the Batch on a short mission, and then they had all been split up for a few seemingly menial tasks that didn't require the whole team. When he returned to Coruscant on a quick leave, you opted for another night in together, lounging on your couch as he shared some news of one clone defector who had been particularly audacious in his rebellion. Crosshair had been sent to Barton IV, a harsh, icy planet where some clones had been protecting an armory from Separatist infiltration. His mission was to assist in ridding the armory from local raiders, whose relentless attacks were costing the Republic both materials and clones. The lieutenant who had been assigned to supervise the mission had been quite the ass, and Crosshair didn't mince his words in the slightest in his scathing description of this Lieutenant Nolan, who was apparently an 'ineffectual, privileged, effete, soft-penised debutante'.

You'd been giggling uncontrollably at his brutal verbal assault, and you were further delighted as Crosshair described the equally merciless way that the ranking clone officer on the base, Commander Mayday, had responded to the mistreatment with unabashed sarcasm and an absolute refusal to be bullied. It sounded like Mayday was fiercely protective of the two remaining clones under his command and wasn't about to be pushed around by some newbie, no matter what his rank was. "He took one look at the lieutenant and asked him to his face if he had ever commanded a mission before. The look on that man's face was priceless."

"Crosshair," you interrupted suddenly, "Did you... No... it can't be..." You feigned a look of horrified realization. "It sounds like you made... a friend?!" He rolled his eyes, face gleaming with suppressed amusement, giving you only a smirk in reply as he continued his story.

"It gets better," he said, "We were ordered to chase after the raiders, in the middle of a snowstorm. It was ridiculous. We got stuck in an avalanche, and Mayday was hurt. I dragged him back to the outpost, and apparently this Nolan still had his pride hurt from earlier and was trying to deny us medical attention... so Mayday shot him in the chest, point-blank."