The Nighttime Fear

Prologue

Author's Note: Somebody to You by Banners really fits Hunter in here. -~- (Because sometimes, you're so desperate for love, you'll take it in whatever form it comes in, no matter how twisted it might be.)

This is for the square "Jedi AU" on the Bad Batch Bingo, and the fanart on the front cover was made by me. Updates will be weekly on Friday. :D

WARNING: Depression, child abuse, mild violence

~ Rivana Rita

He wants to cry. Or scream. Or throw up. Preferably, all of the above. Not stand here and listen to the Council's "you did the right thing" lecture. Master Windu's to be precise. As if this is something he could actually understand somehow. It's not. Never could be.

No one could understand what it feels like. Not them, anyway.

Never them.

Hunter's eight. This was his first kill.

His master was his first kill.

What does that make him?

And the Council just says that was the right thing to do.

Which, yeah, Hunter knows it was. He doesn't doubt it. They had no other choice.

He's only been a Jedi for two years. That's not long enough to know their way, to know what he's doing, but here he is. Apparently, the fact that he killed his master for turning to the Dark Side means he knows what he's doing.

Apparently.

And means they're going to Knight him and... oh, yeah, they're not doing it because they believe in him. Hunter doesn't blame them a shred for any of that. The Council didn't want them in the first place, but they came, anyway. They didn't want their relationship with each other. Said they were too attached.

They're a tetrad, though, and it's not something they can help. Their souls are bound together forever. They are one, and with the war, the Council didn't want their abilities to go to waste.

No, they're Knighting him because their master is dead, and there's no one else who would be willing to take care of them. Maybe they just don't trust him with having another master.

Hunter certainly doesn't.

What matters is that they get to stick together. He'll get to stay with his brothers, anyway, because they're still padawans – like he should be – and they're... in his charge now.

He didn't notice their master's Fall, didn't see him killing any of the regs they worked with.

He did care about them, though. At least, they would like to think he did. Hunter saw it in his eyes. But, you know, that was seconds before Hunter stabbed him through the heart.

He's only been a Jedi for two years. He's not ready to be a Knight yet. He hardly even understands what it means.

Hunter still feels numb when he walks out of the chambers. His brothers are waiting around, like they always are.

Crosshair slides his hand into Hunter's squeezing lightly. None of them ask if he's okay. He almost wishes they would, but really? He'd be more upset if they did. None of them are, and he doesn't really know how they could be.

It's stupid, really. They don't need anyone else. They just have each other. They've only ever had each other. They're four, and they're one, and they don't need anyone else to survive.

"I'm not calling you master," Crosshair says as Tech takes up his place at Hunter's right. Wrecker's in the back, quiet as ever. The atmosphere over them is heavy, but it's easiest not to talk about it. Not to think about it.