The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

I Said Talk To Him

Author's Note: This is for the Bad Batch bingo square of "reunion". :) Don't tell me you also aren't wondering what would have happened if the wyrm didn't show up. xD

~ Amina Gila

In which the wyrm didn't show up, and Hunter and Crosshair got to finish their... "talk."

"She went through what she did because you failed."

"They're all going to die here because of your failure."

He hadn't wanted to go. He'd tried to stop them, but it wasn't enough and he's the reason they keep failing and every time he tries to make it better, it just gets worse and Hunter is so, so, so tired of everything hurting.

He's so tired of being hit and pushed and ignored and – and Crosshair is the one who started this. He doesn't get to be angry about it.

There's just so much, too much and he just can't.

His fist jerks upwards with every, complete intent of punching Crosshair in the face, but he sees it coming because he always does. It hurts when Crosshair hits him back and his mind just – snaps. Breaks. Sort of falls, plummeting into its bottomless pit of violence and emptiness that's been all he's felt since Eriadu or – no, it's all started long, long before that. It started the second Crosshair betrayed them. That he abandoned them, and Hunter's so tired of being hurt.

He feels raw and exposed, torn down to nothing. He is nothing, and he never will be.

The fact that Crosshair is still able to hurt him makes him even angrier, and Hunter knows they're feeding back and forth in a plummeting loop, but he genuinely doesn't even care.

He can't think about anything except his overwhelming, all-consuming desire to hurt.

Crosshair's arm hooks around his neck in a chokehold, and Hunter gasps faintly, genuinely completely certain that he's actually going to do it – to cut off his breathing and strangle him.

"What?" Hunter snarls, because he's just – not thinking. Not anything. He doesn't want to hurt Crosshair, but he is so tired of being nothing of being useless of failing of himself of Crosshair of everything and he can't do this anymore. "You're gonna kill me? Like you did Tech?"

Crosshair's grip faulters and Hunter throws him off. His chest is heaving and it's hard to breathe. To anything. He's burning and he aches all over.

Crosshair punches him in the face.

...

He probably deserved that.

Hunter has no idea how they ended up in the snow, but somehow, they did.

"I didn't ask you to come after me," Crosshair hisses, "You chose to."

He hates himself for hitting Crosshair, but it also feels like he deserves it. For doing this to them. For ripping them apart. For abandoning them. Betraying them. Everything. "I didn't want to go!" Hunter yells back, and he knows it changes nothing, but it – still – he knew something would go wrong, knew they shouldn't that isn't – but they insisted what was he supposed to do –

The last time he said no, Crosshair walked away from him.

"Oh, so what excuse do you have?" Crosshair asks snidely, "Got a mind-control chip in your head, too?"

Hunter slams him into the snow and punches him. He should probably feel something at the very, very unpleasant cracking crunch of Crosshair's nose breaking, but well, he doesn't. Like he's incapable of feeling anything other than a raw, unfiltered rage, and he can't hate himself more than he already does.