The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

Author's Note: Idk what dark hole this crawled out of but after seeing the last episode of Season 3, I couldn't stop thinking about how poor Tech got left behind on Tantiss forever...

~ Tirana Sorki

Crosshair knew CX-2 was Tech but was there really a point in telling his brothers when Tech's mind was lost forever? And now with Tech's actual death by his brothers own hands on Tantiss, it's a secret Crosshair has every intention of keeping forever. But that doesn't make it any easier to deal with.

"You had your chance to be one of us. You chose the wrong side."

"You should be more careful with your shooting hand."

Crosshair jerks awake with a quiet gasp, tears burning his eyes, the desperate panic of that moment clawing his throat and he can't breathe and he can't –

That was Tech.

It –

Can't stop remembering the desperate panic clawing in his chest at that moment, when Tech had knocked him down, stepping on his arm. He thought he was going to kill him. He – he wouldn't have cared if he had, even if he may not have wanted the last thing he ever knew to be that it was Tech who did this.

But considering that everything that happened to Tech was because of him, maybe it would've been fitting.

But then he'd –

Done what he did instead.

Can't stop remembering that masked face standing over him, the knife swinging down, or the agonizing pain that followed. The last thing he'd seen was the blood everywhere before he'd blacked out and –

Then he'd woken up in the training room, trapped and unable to move, and –

He can't move right now either. Something's holding him down and that's all he can think about as he tries to jerk away, heart pounding. It takes a moment to sink in that what's holding him so tightly this time is actually Wrecker's arm wound around him – not the restraints he's gotten so used to being trapped under.

Wrecker stirs a little half-under him, opening his eyes. Despite how he's still recovering from his broken ribs and the long list of other injuries AZI listed off, he's still no less inclined to snuggle, even if he's been a little less aggressive about it. It's the first time they've really done it since... since before Kaller.

"Crosshair?" Wrecker asks, concern in his eye.

"I'm fine," he mutters, twisting to press his face against Wrecker's shoulder as though it could block out the world when half of what's haunting him is in his mind.

Wrecker doesn't press, sliding an arm around his back and holding him tightly again. They both know what nightmares are like, after all. Sometimes not talking about them at all is easier. For him at least.

Crosshair tries to focus on the feel of being pressed against Wrecker, instead of the –

That last moment in the training room.

His gut is rolling and he wants to throw up again just remembering.

That was Tech.

And Hunter had thrown an electrostaff right through him and it's probably for the best that his brothers don't know and never will, but he can't stop thinking about it. They killed Tech. They –

That – that was Tech.

Or at least, the hollow empty shell that his body had become with his mind gone.