Out of Time

Chapter 6 - In Death I Will Survive

Author's Note: The beginning of the aftermath. ^-^

~ Amina Gila

He doesn't want to talk to anyone. Crosshair left midway through the call with Omega. It wasn't something he wanted to see, anyway. There really wasn't much to say when they were apart, and it feels like he doesn't belong.

Which he already knew.

Not that he has anywhere else to go, though.

Younger-Crosshair was watching as he left, but he didn't say anything. Didn't try to stop him.

It'd be easier on the past Marauder, because it's the one he remembers. Not this one – the one his brothers had without him, the one where everything changed.

And for the record, he doesn't like the thought of keeping anyone prisoner here, either.

He goes into the storage area to just... be for a little while.

It's not that he wants to be alone – he has been for so long, it's the last thing he wants – but he just...

Doesn't belong here.

Crosshair wasn't entirely expecting any of them to follow, especially not Hunter. The younger one.

Then again, it isn't as though he knows what happened to them. He probably doesn't even know that Crosshair left them. Of course, he still feels some entirely misplaced sense of responsibility.

"Go away," Crosshair tells him flatly.

"I need to know," Hunter replies, unphased. "I don't know what happened in the future. But I... I heard you left. I need to know why – what happened – what... changed." He sounds desperate. He's hurting. Of course, he is. They all are. And how couldn't they be?

"It doesn't matter." He doesn't want to explain it. Doesn't even know how to.

"Yes, it does." He sounds frustrated. Hurt.

"Ask someone else."

"You're the only one who would say what needs to be said, Crosshair. And you're the one that – if I failed you, I need to know how."

Crosshair twists around to look at him for the first time. "It wasn't your choices, Hunter." It wasn't – that was from an entirely different time, and he can't take responsibility for it.

"Even if it didn't happen, it... it happened somewhere, and it could have happened. I need to know." He sounds desperate. Scared.

Crosshair never remembers Hunter feeling like that. He's either changed, or he missed it from before. Then again, Hunter never saw his squad torn apart. "You left the Empire," Crosshair tells him bluntly, "I didn't."

Hunter shakes his head, frowning. He climbs onto the crate next to him. "But we – we're loyal to each other."

"We're loyal to each other, not some Empire."

"You weren't loyal to me."

It's like an echo of another time, and how many times has he wanted to undo that? To change it? And this Hunter isn't Crosshair's any more than any version of him ever could be again, but he still... he wants to see him that way. And he doesn't know what to say to him. "It wasn't your fault, Hunter." And it wasn't, no matter how many times Crosshair tried to blame him for it. Hunter couldn't control everything – he had no control over any of that. Being angry at him was entirely unfair. He doesn't know why it took so many months, why it took nearly killing him for Crosshair to finally figure that out.