Doomsday

Chapter 9 - Hunter

Author's Note: Plot twist. Heh heh. >:)

~ Rivana Rita

He looks up at the sound of blaster fire. Wrecker is shooting at the others now, and they're taking cover. He – he should be. They are traitors. But Hunter had been loyal, too, and he didn't try to kill them. He kept telling them to stand down.

Crosshair looks at Tech's motionless form right next to him and slowly disentangles them. Wrecker was strangling him. He could have broken his neck. Crosshair feels entirely numb about that. He doesn't know why – he should. But Tech is a traitor, too.

He wants to... hurt them. But he doesn't want to kill them, even if they are traitors, even if they did... betray everything. Hunter – Hunter would know what to do. Hunter, who was loyal when they weren't.

Crosshair pushes himself upright, swaying slightly on his feet, and steps into the hall.

"Wrecker," he calls, and his brother stops in the middle of the hall, whirling around with a snarl. "Stand down."

"You're all traitors," Wrecker snarls, firing at him.

Crosshair ducks back against the wall.

"Hunter's last orders were to detain, not terminate."

Wrecker pauses, hovering. He knows just as well that those were Hunter's last standing orders, and that no one has given them anything to contradict that.

It's Hunter they follow first and foremost.

Wrecker steps forward, anyway. He's refusing to be deterred. Hunter himself is probably the only one who could make him stop.

Crosshair can't remember the last time he's felt so... angry. He has always had a bit of a temper compared to his brothers, but that's not what this is. Wrecker is blatantly disobeying orders, too. Wrecker is – he's trying to kill him. Them. It's wrong. He shouldn't be. Them.

Pain lances through his head again.

"All clones in violation of Order 66 shall be terminated," Wrecker growls, raising his blaster. Crosshair starts reaching for his own. A distant part of his mind knows this should hurt, but it doesn't. He's just angry.

A shot rings out, and Wrecker's body drops to the ground. At the end of the hall, Rex doesn't lower his blaster. Neither does Echo.

His head is still throbbing, but mostly, he just feels numb. Angry. Cold. Not – not himself.

(That's what Rex was talking about, he realizes numbly. This.)

Brothers or no, they are traitors. They betrayed the Republic, the now Empire. The penalty for treason is termination but Hunter had...

"Crosshair," Echo says, cautiously, slowly.

Good soldiers follow orders, his mind whispers again. "You're traitors," he accuses, hand drifting towards his blaster. They're traitors, and they have to be stopped. (Don't hurt them, a quiet, distant voice in his mind whispers. It sounds like... himself.)

Rex is looking at him, with much the same expression Hunter used to have when he's assessing something. The same calm, calculated look as he plans his next move.

He's expecting Rex to fire at him.

He doesn't.

Instead, it's Echo who suddenly whips out his blaster, hitting Crosshair square in the chest with a stun bolt. And finally, mercifully, everything blacks out.

***

Tech is hovering over him when he finally awakens.

It takes a few moments for his memories to flood in, and when they do, an icy sense of horror hits him full force. He – he lost control of himself. Again. Wrecker did, too. And Tech –