@alligatorpie1945

Gah I love this so very very much!!! I absolutely love Crosshair and Omega anything!!! I don’t know why but I love this pairing and wish there was more to this or a lot more like this out there!!!

Please please make more Crosshair and Omega Fanfictions but not with reader added/insert whatever lol. I love them so much!!!

Returned

Rating: SFW/PG

Word Count: 1.2k

Pairing: none

Warnings: I mean its crosshair, and hes an angsty bitch with or without chip so ANGST. Also its fluffy :)

Summary: The bad batch has rescued their missing member, Crosshair, from the empire and removed his chip. How will his return to the group go, especially now that Omega has joined in his absence?

Authors note: Someone requested a touching moment between Crosshair and Omega with him returning from the empire and I loved that idea so im running with it. Thanks @gokyacetakal for the request!

tags: @mangoberry99

Crosshair came to slowly, the first thing he saw were bright lights above him. His hand reached to his head, expecting the sharp pain he usually felt on the right side. No pain came though. He only felt a medpatch on the spot that used to give him a headache.

“Crosshair? Can you hear me?” He recognized that annoying voice. It sounded like his intellectual brother.

“I think he’s waking up.” A deeper voice spoke this time. Crosshair opened his eyes and saw Tech standing over his body, data pad in hand. Hunter was on the other side of him, arms crossed and watching him. “How do you feel?” Hunter asked.

Crosshair tried sitting up, trying to remember what happened. “Why am I here?” He asked. He must’ve sounded testy. Based on the exchanged look between Hunter and Tech, they were trying to be careful about what they said.

“We came to bring you back.” Hunter said, looking back to him. “Never should've left you.” He looked slightly apologetic as he said it, but when he finished his face went back to his typical expression, brooding and betraying no emotion.

“And we removed your inhibitor chip,” Tech chimed in.

“My what?” Crosshair asked. He looked at Tech suspiciously, eyebrows knitted together.

Tech then launched into the explanation. All clones had inhibitor chips, which affected their cognitive functions, which had forced the clones to follow orders without questions. Crosshairs had been the only functioning one in the group.

Crosshair was processing for a moment, while the other two watched him.

“Is he up??” A loud voice boomed on the other side of the door. Crosshair immediately recognized it as Wreckers. He rolled his eyes. Here we go. He thought to himself.

Wrecker barreled through the door. “Cross! Hey buddy!” He shoved past Tech and Hunter and got to the edge of the bed, slamming his hands onto the rails. Crosshair looked annoyed, but he was happy to be back. He preferred being with the bad batch, his family, rather than those regs. And the Empires new troopers were even worse.

Echo walked in after Wrecker, eyeing up Crosshair. He stood at the other end of the room, the furthest away from Crosshair. “So, you feel like shooting any of us?” Echo asked. He seemed suspicious, and guarded too when he said it. Everyone else looked back to Echo, then to Crosshair again.

“Not yet I don’t.” Crosshair said, returning the suspicious gaze to Echo.

“Not even if you were ordered to?” Tech added.

They all paid close attention to him after Tech mentioned orders.

He realized they all weren’t sure if his programming was still affecting him. He shrugged. “Following orders is overrated.”

Wrecker looked confused at the word choice. Tech smiled briefly, then went back to the data pad, as if he were documenting Crosshair's behavior. Hunter nodded approvingly, and he looked more relaxed too. Echo eyed up Crosshair once more. He relaxed after a moment and took a few steps forward, seeming satisfied. “Welcome back Crosshair.” He said.

“Aww yeah!” Wrecker said, jumping up and punching his fist in the air. Then he put his arm around Crosshair “Good to have you back!” Crosshair pushed his arm off, but he was happy to have things more or less back to normal.

The door opened again, and a small figure stepped in. Omega. So much for getting back to normal. Crosshair eyed her. He noticed his comm unit strapped onto her forearm. He scowled at her as she entered. My replacement.

“So you kept her around.” He said, not being subtle about his disapproval. Echo stepped in front of Omega protectively, and shot a glance back to Crosshair. He wasn’t happy with that comment.

“She’s one of us. And she’s part of the squad now.” Hunter spoke, and Crosshair looked back at him. He spoke confidently, and raised his eyebrows to Crosshair as he stared at him. Be nice, his expression seemed to say. “Don’t worry, you’ll like her!” Wrecker whispered and pointed at Omega.

Crosshair shook his head, and went to stand up. “Hi Crosshair!” Omega peeked out behind Echo and waved, smiling at him. He watched her curiously. After a moment of her waving and Crosshair not returning the smile or wave, she walked up to him.

“You don’t seem so angry anymore. I’m glad you’re back!” She spoke a bit quickly. He raised an eyebrow. “It’s good to be back.” He said, testing the conversation.

“I didn’t take your bed, or touch your weapons or anything, I promise!” The words tumbled out, and Crosshair recognized she was nervous. He sighed. “Don’t look so scared.” He began walking past her and patted her shoulder as he went.

“You’re here, so you’re here. Welcome to the squad.” He turned over his shoulder to say the last part to her. He was a bit tense as he spoke, but he saw the rest of the squad’s attachment. He had to admit to himself her harmless and innocent demeanor was beginning to grow on him. He wanted to try and play nice, for everyone else’s sake.

Omega smiled widely. “Thanks!” He only stared at her curiously, still scowling a bit. “Come on boys. Let’s give Crosshair his space.” Hunter spoke, nodding to Crosshair. Crosshair returned the gesture. “Aww.” Wrecker said. He sadly shuffled out. Echo followed, then Hunter stood at the door.

“It is good to have you back, Crosshair.” Tech said to him, looking up from his data pad as he said it, then patted his shoulder. Crosshair patted his arm in return. Tech then left the room.

Omega looked like she was contemplating something. She turned and started to walk out, Hunter waiting for her. Crosshair turned and watched her movements carefully. “Crosshair?” she stopped and turned around, looking at him a bit nervously.

“What kid?” He looked down at her as he spoke, feeling her anticipation. She looked down shyly. “I was wondering… with your enhanced skill you’re a good shot, and I got a new weapon. I was wondering if you could help me with some target practice sometime.” She looked back up to him as she finished, shoulder shrugged a little like she was ready to apologize for asking.

Crosshair's eyebrows raised in shock, surprised that Omega would ask him for any help. He quickly wiped the expression off of his face, and relaxed a bit as he watched her demeanor. He was beginning to understand the team's attachment to her. “From what I saw, you’re not a bad shot.” He said. He distinctly remembered her shooting his weapon out of his hands. She lit up a bit as he complimented her. “We’ll see if you can keep up with me during my practice.”

Omega interpreted this as a yes, and she smiled with excitement. “Come on, Omega,” Hunter waved her over to the door. “See ya, Crosshair!” Omega waved and left. Hunter smiled at her as she walked past him to exit.

“Thanks Crosshair.” Hunter looked back up to Crosshair as he spoke.

“I guess you figured out kids after all.” Crosshair said, ignoring the thanks.

Hunter's eyebrows furrowed like he was deciphering the meaning behind what Crosshair said. He shrugged. “We did our best.” He exited and let the door close.

They did their best, huh? Crosshair contemplated what Hunter said.

I guess I will too.

These regal-looking fluffballs are white terns, or manu-o-kū in Hawaiian.

White terns are found throughout Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, where instead of building nests, they lay their singled speckled egg on a small depression on a branch, roof or other surface. Such minimalism! (Photo: Melody Bentz. Image description: Two white terns on a branch of a blooming tree.)

IT HAS TO END WITH MY FAVORITE SIBLING DUO TOGETHER: Crosshair & Omega (My nickname for them from my Fanfiction is Crossa lol). I have a HUGE OBSESSION WITH THEM (esp Omega)

Omega & Grogu are my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE CHARACTERS OF ALL TIME! Can’t handle if either die!

My theory (probably wrong) is that Hunter may die saving Omega, Crosshair IS GOING TO SAVE OMEGA (& I think her him as well!) & GOING TO TAKE CARE OF HER!

I think there is a huge (biggest?!) connection between the two since S1E1?!?!

Fault

Yoooooo it’s here!!!! Enjoy this chip fic between Crosshair and Omega (who are going to need some uncle niece interactions, Dave.) No TWs really, besides mention of blood and a significant cut? Enjoy 💕 (also, I made up all of the CT numbers besides Crosshair’s. If we get any canon confirmed, I’ll edit it.)

CT-9904 opened his eyes, the back of his head throbbing. He glanced around.

It was a fairly small room, with a bunk and a chair. He had one restraint on his middle, holding him to another chair in the center of the room. Pathetic. He could break that in a split second.

His attention was drawn to muffled shouting coming from across the ship. His brain automatically identified the voices.

“We have to help him!” CT-9902. Nickname: Wrecker. Traitor of the Empire.

“We know, Wrecker,” CT-1409. Nickname: Echo. Traitor of the Empire.

“We don’t have the supplies necessary for the surgery just yet. We’ll have to make a supply run,” CT-9903. Nickname: Tech. Traitor of the Empire.

“Then we make a stop at the nearest planet. We’ll have to keep Omega on the ship with one of us since that bounty hunter’s after her,” CT-9901. Nickname: Hunter. Traitor of the Empire.

Omega was a name he was not familiar with. At least, he didn’t think he was. There was something in the back of his mind that was pressing forward with each voice, but he passed it off as residual pain from being knocked out. After all,

What else could it be?

Small footsteps caught his attention. They were too light to be any of the traitors. Perhaps an animal?

The door opened with a hiss, and CT-9904 startled when he was greeted with a child.

She glanced both ways before stepping inside, carrying a glass of water. “Hello,” she said, giving him a small wave.

“What do you want?” he hissed, trying to intimidate her. She shrugged.

“Just came to check up on you. I brought you some water if you want it.”

He glared. “How do I know it’s not poisoned?”

“If we were trying to kill you, we would have done so on the battlefield.”

We…

“You’re one of the traitors.”

Her eyes widened a millimeter before she shrugged again. “I guess. My name’s Omega, although you already know that.”

He did know that.

Why?

“Once I get out of here, I’m reporting you all to the Empire. They won’t be merciful.”

“No, you won’t,” she said simply, setting the glass down beside her and sitting on the bed. “We’ll get the chip out, I promise. None of this is your fault.”

He scoffed. “You act like I don’t have a choice.”

“Do you?”

He faltered. Did he?

He ignored her question. “Y-You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I do, and I know you know that. It’s not your fault.”

His headache grew stronger. What was going on? “Shut… up.”

Her eyes seemed to stare straight through his soul. He didn’t like it. “None of us blame you for this, Crosshair. Not Hunter, not Wrecker, not Tech, not Echo. None.”

Something snapped. Something changed. He didn’t know what, but suddenly the child sitting in front of him wasn’t an enemy, and the men in the other room weren’t traitors. But- but they wer-are! They are traitors of the Empire!

Since when did he care about the Empire?

Since the Jedi attempted the Emporer’s life. They disobeyed orders.

But… since when was that an issue?

He shook his head madly to try and get rid of the swarming thoughts. “What are you doing?” he snapped, breaking the restraint on his middle. The girl didn’t flinch.

“I’m helping you. The Empire can’t hurt you anymore.”

The Empire…

“They can,” he breathed, and he couldn’t believe the words came out of his mouth. Those were the words of treasonists. Traitors. He wasn’t.

Was he?

“They won’t,” she said firmly, and he was almost inclined to believe her. The thought immediately repulsed him. The Empire never hurt him. This… this child was planting treasonous thoughts in his head. Was she a Jedi? Was he being mind tricked? Was that why a bounty hunter is after her?

“You’re a Jedi,” he hissed, venom in his voice as he stood up from the chair. Her eyes widened.

“What- Crosshair no! I’m- I’m not planting the thoughts in your head! That’s you!”

“Liar,” he snapped. A tear rolled down his cheek. Why was he crying? His eyes landed on a knife that was resting on a counter next to his rifle and gear. She backed up into the wall.

“Crosshair, you know I’m not a Jedi. Please!” she yelled, her eyes glassy.

The pounding in his head distracted him from the voices silencing in the other room.

In one fluid motion, he grabbed the knife, slashing it across where her neck was.

She twisted her head to the side. The knife caught on the base of her neck, dragging to the side, then up underneath her chin and up to the corner of her lip.

She screamed.

CT-9904 paused, the knife resting inches away from her face. What had he done? The girl looked up at him, her brown eyes wide with terror. Blood flowed steadily from the gash. Too much blood.

“Cross… pl-please.”

“Omega!!”

He shot his head up, but couldn’t get his body to move. The sound of pounding footsteps rang throughout the hallway.

The door opened and Hu-CT-9901 ran in, blaster drawn. “Step. Away. From the kid.” he growled.

He dropped the knife. It clattered to the floor, and he realized with a start that his hands were shaking.

“I said step away from the kid!” He barked. CT-9903’s head appeared over CT-9901’s shoulder, and his eyes widened when they landed on Ome-the girl.

“Hunter,” he whispered. “I need to get to Omega.”

Hunter glanced over at her, and his gun started to shake. “Cross. Please. Step away.”

CT-9904 obeyed. What other choice did he have? It was that or his life.

He knew that wasn’t the reason.

Tec- CT-9903 rushed in and dropped beside the girl. He put a hand on her cheek, and they exchanged a few words before she turned back to the Sargent.

“Hu-Hunter, please. It… it wasn’t his fault.”

“Omega,” he said, his voice sounding more terrified than angry.

“Please. He- he’s in there. I saw him.”

His gun dropped, and CT-9904 sighed in relief.

“Wrecker!” CT-9901 called. CT-9902 came in.

“Where’s the kid?”

CT-9901 nodded in her direction, and CT-9902’s skin paled slightly. CT-9903 picked up the girl.

“I’m going to see what I can do for her. Echo has the medkit prepared, yes?”

CT-9901 nodded.

“Then let’s go, Omega.”

CT-9903 promptly left the room. CT-9902 turned to the Sargent. “Echo said we’re about a parsec away from the nearest planet.”

“Good,” he sighed.

CT-9902 shifted his weight. “Echo… uh, gave me a sedative. For Cross.”

CT-9901 nodded in understanding, taking the hypo from his grasp. He turned to CT-9904.

“Are you going to fight me on this?”

His legs were shaking something fierce, but he stood his ground. He would fight till his dying breath for the Empire. That’s what he was made for. That was his purpose. He- he…

“No,” he said, and he scowled at how meek he sounded.

The Sargent’s eyes seemed to soften, and he approached him carefully before sticking the hypo in his neck. CT-9904 dropped onto the bed. He was vaguely aware of the blood staining the spot next to him before his vision went dark.

------------------------------------------------------------

Years went by.

The cut healed into a thin, white scar, curving from the middle base of her neck to the right side, going up the middle right of her jaw, and just barely past the corner of her lip. Whenever she was asked about it, she would always say she got it from a ship crash.

Crosshair would always flinch.

If anyone ever gave him a funny look, he would say that he was the one piloting the ship. The others would always be quick to butt in and say the ship had been sabotaged, and there was no way for him to avoid the crash.

Crosshair couldn’t look at Omega for a long time, and the thin, white line haunted him for the rest of his life.

@in-the-crosshairs

Love this

What The Bad Batch Members are to Omega:

Hunter - Dad

Echo - also Dad. The one she goes to when she knows Hunter will say 'No'.

Wrecker - cool big bro :D strong and funny!!!

Tech - the nerd uncle

(Crosshair - the one semi-racist uncle who has stress with the family and no one wants to invite him to family events anymore)

What Omega is to the boys:

Hunter - Daughter. No one touches her. Would do everything for her.

Echo - Guess I raise this kid now? There there nO DON'T TOUCH THAT

Wrecker - the lil sis he always wanted. Can carry her around but it's probably her who tells him goodnight stories

Tech - Hunter said she's with us now so that's okay with me??? There are no disadvantages we gain from that so yeah that's fine?? She's smart though

(Crosshair - LiTtLe BrAt )

I love this! CAN SOMEONE PLEASE PLEASE DO A PIC, FANFIC OR ANYTHING SIMILAR?!? There’s too many Fanfics that have romantic characters or whatever (I’m sorry if that’s rude). I just prefer non romantic relationship dynamics lol. I’m sorry, I went OVER BOARD on tags (didn’t mean to lol!), had a seizure so brain is fuzzy today. I SHOULD be doing my Hawaiian language lesson for today now on DUOLINGO INSTEAD of obsessing over OMEGA (only bc she’s much harder to find lol) and/or ALWAYS TRY to find ANYTHING AT ALL that is OMEGA & CROSSHAIR; OMEGA & GROGU lol! Omega & Cross are fave sibling duo; Omega & Grogu are my all time fave characters lol!!!!

Hemlock: We have someone you might like to see. *brings Omega*

Crosshair: *pulling Omega towards him* Hurt her and I’ll kill you.

Shameless self-promotion!

I wrote this little fic a while back and for a long time I thought something like this would never happen in canon but with how season 2 has developed... who knows 👀

Anyway here's some Crosshair and Omega sibling cuteness.

___

There were more troopers on patrol that night. More than they’d expected Crosshair decided as he peered through his scope at the hangar and the few small portholes carved into the rock. At least they were following schedule so it shouldn’t be a problem.

He paused to tap a quick message to Hunter’s comm, just to be safe. His brothers could take on some extra security but it was always better to err on the side of caution if they could afford it. His attention shifted back to the base. The darkness next to him remained quiet though he could hear the occasional shuffling and soft breathing noises. It made him want to roll his eyes.

How Hunter had thought this was a good idea was beyond him. Though in this particular case he had Echo to thank, because of course the brat needed more field experience and of course that experience had to be the kind she had the least of. Like manning a sniper nest.

Karking reg and his military conscience. Maybe next time he was cleaning his legs one of them would ‘accidentally’ get lost and stomped on by Wrecker.

Now, he could look on the bright side. The brat hadn’t deemed it necessary to talk to him yet-

“Hey, how do you do that?”

And there it was. Yeah. Right there.

Crosshair briefly regretted all his life choices as he felt himself bristle. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to the kid’s presence by this point but her timing was still garbage. Echo was definitely going to miss that leg. He’d make sure of it.

“How do I do what?” he snapped back, chomping down on the toothpick he was currently abusing. He could see her blink at him through the darkness and an image of Tech flashed through his mind as she leapt at to the opportunity to talk:

“Usually when you have a toothpick in your mouth you make a ‘tsk’ sound when you wriggle it around. Like this:”

She leaned back on her haunches and the edge of her mouth curled as her tongue made a sharp clicking sound. Crosshair felt his whole face spasm. Kriffing brat, why was that so accurate??

Oblivious to his mortification, Omega pressed on: “But you’re not doing it now. How do you stop yourself from doing it?”

Really? They were doing this now?

“In case you haven’t noticed,” he bit out, “we’re in the middle of a mission.”

“Yeah, I know. But how do you stop yourself? I thought it was a nervous tic.”

“A nervous ti-?!” His eye actually left the scope and he sputtered before he had the chance to realize what he was doing. When he did, he felt like digging a hole into the gravel and burying his head in it. He was pretty sure Tech had told him of some animal somewhere that did that.

He gritted his teeth and willed himself to calm down. He was not going to lose his temper in front of the brat.

“You ever heard of the word ‘creepy’, kid?” he shot back and glued his eye back to the scope. They were lucky the guards hadn’t moved much in the meantime. If they had and Crosshair hadn’t noticed it he was fully committed to blaming it on Echo. Or Hunter.

As time went by the tension in his shoulders began to unwind. The kid was quiet but didn’t seem discouraged if the air of anticipation was anything to go by. Crosshair on the other hand could feel something chipping away at his resolve under that glittering brown gaze.

He fidgeted for a bit. Then fidgeted some more and knew he was doomed as soon as the thought entered his brain and wiped its feet on the welcome mat.

“You compartmentalize.” She instantly perked up next to him. “You take specific habits and teach your body to associate them with a physical state.”

“A physical state?”

He glared out of the corner of his eye. He was getting there.

“Posture, breathing, heartbeat,” His trigger finger flexed and the chalk-powdered skin caught on the glove’s fabric. “Tactile sensations. Once your body starts recognizing the signs, it puts you in the right mindset.”

Omega had gone completely still by the time he finished and he recognized that dark blotch on her face as her mouth hanging open. Her voice was hushed with awe when she spoke next.

“That is so cool.”

“You know what’s not cool?”

“What?”

“The fact that you’re not compartmentalizing right now.”

There. That should keep her quiet for a while.

A group of guards changed shifts shortly after and Crosshair watched them chatter with each other, helmets bobbing, while the stars marched on overhead. His brothers were still making their way through the base, it seemed. And they’d managed to stay under the radar for once.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, a light appeared in his peripheral vision, somewhere off to the left. He froze as he stopped to evaluate the situation. He couldn’t afford to be unprepared if a shootout broke out so removing his scope from the hangar was out of the question. This meant that his best course of action was to try and judge the light’s position on his own for now.

He pulled away from his rifle and trained his gaze on a suitable section of the rock, a small distance off to the right of the light. Omega’s reaction was slower.

“There’s a light!”

He saw her point her binoculars at it.

“I know.”

“But it’s over there.” She tugged at his pauldron urgently and he resisted the urge to grumble. If she yanked off his rifle support he would have Hunter solder it back on personally.

“I can see it,” he bit out, trying to do his job despite the literal child attached to his armor.

“But you’re not looking at it!”

Crosshair sent a pleading look up at the heavens. Dank farrik, what was wrong with him? He was better than this, he should be able to ignore her.

“Will you stay quiet if I tell you why?”

Her blond curls bobbed with her nod, reminding him of an overenthusiastic cleaning droid with a duster. He glared at her through the darkness.

Then made a show of turning the other way and ignoring her.

“Hunter,” he commed his brother. “There’s an extension of the base that’s not on the holomaps. Direction northwest, into the rock. Careful, there may be more troops there.”

“Roger that.” Hunter’s voice crackled through the connection before everything went quiet again. The Firepuncher was cool as Crosshair adjusted his grip on her. Sometimes he wished his rifle could talk so it could shut up when other people couldn’t. Did that make sense? It made no kriffing sense. Point in case, he could already feel Omega scooch closer to him in the dark and he knew he couldn’t avoid his way out of this one.

“Your peripheral vision is more sensitive to light,” he said, “That’s why you see some things better in the dark when you’re not looking directly at them. Same goes for motion.”

Well, technically most people didn’t have any use for it since their peripheral vision was shit, unlike his, but she didn’t need to know that. It was a hollow victory though. She was practically vibrating with excitement now that she’d learned something new again.

There was a tell-tale shuffle and he all but whined when he realized she was about to ask him more questions.

“What is it now?”

“I have another question” Obviously. “When we were about to head out you put your helmet on before the others. Why did you do that when we were still on the Marauder?”

This time he actually drew away from his scope to press his forehead to the dirt. The pebbles under his chest plate crunched as he heaved a deep breath. “Night vision peaks after 30 minutes of being in darkness. I have a shader function in my helmet-”

___

Twenty minutes later they were still in the same place they’d started.

“If your night vision is better, does that mean your eyes are more light sensitive in general?”

“Yes.”

“So you not only see objects more clearly but everything looks brighter.”

“Yes.”

“Does that make it harder to sleep?”

A pause.

“…Yes.”

A surprised gasp. He was at the end of his tether.

“Are you done?” he asked not even bothering to hide the long suffering tone in his voice. Thankfully, thankfully, she was and just in time as the next moment an explosion reached their ears and the troopers inside the hangar started to scurry around like ants. The familiar sound of a siren followed soon after.

It seemed his brothers had finally gotten to the meat of the mission.

Crosshair smirked as he zeroed in on the guard that seemed closest to the hangar bay door. It was time to play whack a trooper.

___

The mission wrapped up without a hitch. His brothers had commed to report a cleared mission objective and a successful retreat which had prompted their leave of the sniper nest. The base personnel hadn’t bothered to try and find them. They were too busy putting out fires.

He and the brat made it back to the Marauder in blessed silence though Crosshair hadn’t failed to notice the bounce in her step. The rest of the batch were already preparing for takeoff — quite leisurely so, they must have shaken off their pursuers — and Omega skipped to Hunter’s side as soon as he was in sight. Crosshair would have made fun of the mushy look that crawled on his face if he hadn’t done it a thousand times already.

“Well, you look excited.” Crosshair heard him say to Omega as he caught up.

“Did you know that your peripheral vision is more light sensitive than your central vision?” she blurted back, shuffling from foot to foot and barely keeping herself from flailing her arms.

There was a moment of confusion as Hunter processed the information. Then his face slowly split into a shit-eating grin that made Crosshair’s blood go cold.

“Zip it,” Crosshair growled in warning, only making Hunter’s smile grow wider, before shoving past them.

Karma really was a bitch.

Hunter was brave enough to show him that same knowing grin a few more times before the day was over and it made Crosshair wonder if he could finish the skull on the other half of his face using just bruises. Tech would have been proud of how close he came to putting his hypothesis to the test.

Life on the Marauder went on after that. The brat was still annoying but moderately so, just as she’d been from the very beginning. Hardly anything had changed except that she and Wrecker had found a new hobby to entertain them and though he didn’t know what it was, he knew it entailed a lot of yelping and rubbing at sore fingertips.

And Echo? Echo had a new leg. Funny how that worked.

It was only a couple of weeks later that their little stakeout would come back to bite him in the ass. He was getting ready to turn in early, drained after listening to his brothers bicker for what was probably a few hours (no, Tech, Wrecker would not stop eating Mantell Mix for dinner no matter how many times you tried to impart the virtues of the food pyramid to him).

Sometimes one had to wonder if Tech wasn’t an idiot under all that intellect. And if that was the smartest person in their group, then Maker help them all.

His armor came off without much fuss as he stripped down to his blacks. A strap on his left vambrace tried to give him trouble but he had just about gotten it off when the curtain to Omega’s room swished open violently.

Her eyes found him standing next to his bunk and she gave him a brilliant smile. One of those beaming ones that promised an annoyance.

“Crosshair! Are you going to bed?”

He answered her with a scowl. “Why do you care?”

As usual she didn’t seem the least bit perturbed and he watched her dive back into the little room, making a ruckus as she rummaged around for something. “Wait, I think it’s pretty much finished-”

There was a triumphant cheer and she seemed to have found what she was looking for as she was soon climbing down the little stairs, running over to him and pushing something into his hands. He stared at her and then the thing he was holding.

It was a piece of cloth. A small piece of cloth.

He couldn’t be sure and he frowned at the way it felt between his fingers, all roughly sewn stitches and errant threads. At least now he knew what she and Wrecker were up to when the latter shoved half his body through the curtain and they spent hours yelping and whispering to each other.

The puzzle started to make sense when he turned the thing over to look at it proper.

It was shaped like a visor or goggles of some sort, made out of shiny black fabric with biased edges and an elastic string attached to either end. The right side of the mask – because it was a mask, a sleep mask – was decorated with a few shaky strokes of white paint that formed a reticle, which, if he wore the thing, would align perfectly with his tattoo.

Crosshair felt something lodge in his throat.

“Here!” Omega said proudly. “For your eyes – you said they bothered you when you sleep.”

He swallowed as he looked at the mask in his hands.

“Thanks.” His voice was hoarse.

“Do you like it?”

He blinked, determined not to let his voice crack.

“It’s fine.”

“Great! I hope you wear it.” With that she leaned in to squeeze him in a hug before skipping off and disappearing into her room. He was left there standing awkwardly by his bunk.

Part of him knew what was coming. No, scratch that, all of him knew what was coming.

Taking a slow breath, he turned around to face the direction of the cockpit. Every single one of his brothers was looking at him with a variation of Hunter’s shit-eating grin form that day. Wrecker looked about ready to crack up. Echo looked like he wanted to be punched.

Crosshair took another breath and steeled himself as he pointed a single threatening finger:

“Not. A. Word.”

It was said it as quickly as his pride allowed and he hurried to tug the mask over his eyes so he wouldn’t have to watch their stupid faces as they burst into giggles. The chortling didn’t stop after he’d settled into his bunk and he relished the rush of satisfaction when he kicked out his leg and it connected with Echo’s midriff, sending him sprawling to the floor with an ‘oof’. That’s what the bastard got for trying to take a holo.

Now, at least, he could finally go to sleep… and the mask did feel nice. Even with all those crooked stitches.

Yeah, Crosshair could finally sleep now.

“Guys,” Echo wheezed from the floor. “I think I got it.”

“Oh karking hell- ”

___

There’s an actual game of whack a trooper online, go look it up I beg of you.

Anyone who follows me knows I have a strange obsession with Crosshair and Omega. I want more interactions with these two and think their dynamic is amazing. I love how hard Omega tries for Crosshair, harder than anyone else!

(‘: tis done

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33854569

enjoy