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superhusbands4ever · 3 years

Text

The Chain - Chapter 4/15

Fandom: The Bad Batch (Star Wars)

Characters: Crosshair, Hunter, Howzer, Rex, Wrecker, Tech, Echo, Omega, Various Clones

Relationships: Crosshair & Howzer, Crosshair & Rex, Crosshair & The Bad Batch, Crosshair & Omega, Hunter & Rex, Hunter & Omega

Additional Tags: Redemption, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Humor, Found Family, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Graphic Violence, Eventual Happy Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending

Summary: One year after the events of The Bad Batch, Crosshair struggles to reconcile his choice with the harsh truth of the world around him. He finds enlightenment in the most unlikely of places and realizes he may have made the wrong decision. But is it too late to do something about it?

Two years after the events of The Bad Batch, Rex reluctantly agrees to allow Hunter and his squad to help him rescue a man who's been captured by the Empire, an Imperial double agent who's cover has been blown. What Hunter thought to be a simple extraction ends up having far greater consequences for their squad than he could have ever anticipated.

Chapter Warnings: None

Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past.

Tryon Edwards

Rex never struck Hunter as the type to let his nerves get the best of him. That one attempted fist fight with Crosshair when rescuing Echo notwithstanding, Rex was always calm and level headed when they worked together in the past. Skako Minor, Anaxes, on Bracca - it was clear why Rex was the Captain of the famously wild Torrent Company and essentially the de facto commander of the infamous 501st Legion. His calm and steady presence along with his cool confidence made him exactly the kind of guy people naturally gravitated to, naturally turned to for leadership.

Which is why it was weird that Rex seemed fidgety in a way he’d never seen from the man before. Anyone who didn’t know him wouldn’t notice, but Hunter could see the way he kept fiddling with the buttons on the controls needlessly. He could hear the leather of Rex’s gloves squeak as he clenched and unclenched his hands periodically. And only Hunter would be able to hear the way Rex kept consciously making an effort to unclench his jaw and stop grinding his teeth.

After the fourth time in as many minutes that Rex flexed his fingers, Hunter finally spoke up.

“Are you alright, Captain?”

Rex glanced at Hunter, hands deliberately stilling in his lap as he sat up straighter.

“Yes,” he said. “Just restless, I suppose.”

Hunter nodded, staring out at the streaking blue and white light of hyperspace through the viewport of the freighter’s cockpit.

“This operative of yours,” Hunter said after a moment, “you two are close?”

Whatever response Hunter was expecting from the other man, it wasn’t for him to laugh. Even Rex seemed startled by the response, looking sheepishly over at the sergeant.

“Sorry,” Rex said, rubbing a hand over his head. “I just- I certainly never expected to be, but… yeah. Yeah. I suppose we are.”

“You don’t get along?”

“We didn’t at first,” Rex said, crossing his arms across his chestplate. “ Manda , I used to hate the guy. But… he’s a good man. The more I worked with him, the more I spoke with the people he helped, I realized that. He’s done a lot for our brothers.”

Hunter nodded slowly. “How did you two meet?”

“Oh, uh—“ Rex twitched again as he went to fiddle with the pilot controls. “We met back during the war.”

“You served together?”

“Ehh,” Rex hedged, “Only a couple of times towards the end.”

Hunter waited for Rex to elaborate but the other man was silent, continuing to mess with the controls. The ship was on autopilot, so he wasn’t actually doing anything. He listened as Rex’s heart rate slowly started gaining speed.

“So… who did he serve under? Maybe I’ve heard of—“

The navicomputer beeped and Rex’s shoulders slumped nearly imperceptively.

“Why don’t you go back and check on the others?” If Hunter didn’t know any better he’d say Rex sounded… relieved? “We should be arriving soon and we still need to rework the plan now that you all are here.”

Hunter frowned. Rex studiously avoided his eyes. He wasn’t ignorant to the fact that Rex was purposefully trying to get rid of him - the man was apparently as good at lying as Wrecker - but he wasn’t sure why.

Finally Hunter nodded. He tapped his bracer against Rex’s pauldron and made his way out of the cockpit.

Rex mumbled something under his breath as the doors slid shut, but the hydraulics were too loud over the man’s voice for Hunter to be able to make out what was said.

He found everyone in the hold, Tech, Wrecker, Boil, Echo, and Omega sitting around the floor in a circle, with Gregor on a bench in the corner cleaning his blaster. He walked in just as Echo laughed at whatever the reg had said.

“Still, I’m glad to see you,” Boil said as Echo’s laughter died down. “Cody mentioned that Rex had found you, but I didn’t get the chance to reach out before… well…”

Echo smiled sadly, resting his flesh hand on Boil’s shoulder.

“It was always entertaining to listen to Rex rant to Cody about all the shenanigans you and Fives got into.”

“Yeah,” Echo agreed, voice gruff. “Though from what I hear, you and Waxer certainly kept Cody on his toes.”

Boil laughed.

“True. Usually it was Waxer making the plans. I somehow always ended up getting dragged along.”

“Yeah, I know how that goes.” Echo sighed. “I’m sorry, by the way. I read about Umbara. I can’t even imagine--”

“Don’t be,” Boil sighed, rubbing at the red scar on the side of his shaved head. “It felt unbearable at the time, but… sometimes I… sometimes I’m almost relieved? Force, that sounds horrible but it’s true. Sometimes I’m relieved he was gone so he wasn’t forced to become monsters like we were. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if they were the lucky ones.”

“You’re not a monster, Boil,” Gregor piped up from the corner. “Whatever the chip made you do wasn’t you. You had no choice.”

Boil nodded slowly, fingers lingering on his temple.

“I still did it, though.”

“I know what you mean,” Wrecker said quietly, eyes on the ground. “When my chip activated I nearly killed my squad. If Rex hadn’t been there to stop me, I would have.”

Omega scooted closer to Wrecker and grabbed his hand, leaning her head against his shoulder. He smiled down at her.

Boil looked sympathetic. “It’s a good thing Rex was there, then. Rex was the one who picked up my ship when I left Corellia. I wish I could say I was surprised to see he’d made it out, but I don’t think I was, really. Cody always believed Rex would survive all of this.”

“Did you…” Echo trailed off, rubbing his neck awkwardly. “Did you… work with Cody while--”

“No,” Boil said firmly, shaking his head. “The GAR structure reorganized surprisingly quickly after the order went out. The 212th was recalled back to Coruscant and was divided up after that. Ghost Company went to Grand Admiral Tarkin while Cody and the other Marshal Commanders were sent to work directly under Palpatine. I haven’t seen Cody since we arrived on Coruscant after Uptapau.”

They were all quiet after that, heads bowed in remembrance of both their fallen and lost brothers. Besides Omega, everyone in the ship had worked under Cody’s command at some point and respected him for the great leader and big brother to all clones that he was. To imagine the strong willed, compassionate, selfless man under the direct control of someone like Palpatine was almost too much to bear.

It was thanks to Cody that Hunter and the others had even been allowed off Kamino. He’d been able to pull rank and convince Nala Se and the other Kaminoan scientists and trainers that the Unit 99s, of which Hunter, Crosshair, Tech, and Wrecker had been the last of, could be useful in the war. If it weren’t for Cody, they would have spent the rest of their days toiling around in Tipoca City, completing test after test until they were finally deemed too “defective” and decommissioned like the others in their unit, or put on janitorial duty like 99.

“What about you guys?” Boil’s quiet voice sounded overly loud in the solemn silence of the ship's hold. “How did you survive the order? Did the Commander get you guys out too?”

“No,” Tech said, adjusting his goggles. “Our chips were never activated. They malfunctioned due to our deviant nature from the other, regular clones.”

Boil cast Wrecker a sidelong look.

“But I thought—“

“His activated later as an effect of repeated head trauma to the chip’s implantation site.”

“Well, I’m glad you guys didn’t have to experience that. Though, I imagine it must have been a very difficult situation for you surrounded by everyone else.”

“Heh, you could say that again,” Wrecker grumbled under his breath.

“We’ve essentially been on the run from the Empire for the last three years,” Echo said. “The vod’e pretty much attack us on sight.”

“You said the Commander helped you escape recently?” Omega piped up from under Wrecker’s arm.

Boil nodded slowly, gaze trained on the ground.

“I’ve only been on Yavin for about a day and a half,” Boil said. “The Commander got me out just a few days ago”

“And then he was discovered,” Tech said succinctly. Echo smacked his arm.

“Yeah,” Boil said quietly, running his hand over his hair. “Extracting me was a risk, from what Howzer said.”

“It was a different op than the usual extractions,” Gregor said from the corner. “Typically he just gave us foot soldiers that he could say were killed in action on missions. Two or three at a time, buried under flimsiwork and red tape. He’d splice the system and mark them as KIA. Apparently the Empire doesn’t care much if they lose one or two rank and file clones.”

“I was higher up in the command structure, though,” Boil added. “I was a lieutenant on Grand Admiral Tarkin’s security team. He was attending some diplomatic event in Corellia and I was assigned a protection squad. The Commander caught me as I was coming off my shift and took me to some tiny infirmary in the hotel. Stunned me and took my chip out. I barely knew what was going on when he told me that he was getting me out of the Empire and we needed to hurry.”

“A natborn Imperial officer helping clones?”

“No,” Boil shook his head, “he is a clone.”

Everyone was silent and Hunter frowned. A clone commander working from within the Empire?

Gregor paused his cleaning and looked up at the group, eyes flickering from them to Hunter, who still lingered in the doorway.

“A clone spy within the Empire?” Tech asked skeptically. “Without his chip?”

Boil nodded. “I wasn’t sure at first, either. He never took his helmet off and he didn’t sound like any clone I’d ever met. But he understood what it was like when I woke up freaking out, asking questions, getting angry. He talked me down, told me that he knew it was disorienting to wake up suddenly in control of your own body after so long but we didn’t have time for an existential crisis so I needed to get myself together.

“So what has he been doing?” Echo questioned. “Just… pretending his chip is active?”

“I guess so. Howzer confirmed it later. They’re pretty close, I guess - I thought Howzer was going to lose it when the distress signal went off.”

“How did the Commander get his out?”

Boil shrugged. “I didn’t ask.”

The room fell silent at that.

Something about the situation prickled at the back of Hunter’s mind. Maybe it was just the similarities to their own brother. Crosshair had chosen to stay with the Empire as well, even when out from under the chip’s influence - though there was no denying that Crosshair’s motivations and this Commander’s motivations were extremely different.

Crosshair chose to stay, to leave the team, their family, behind for selfish reasons - ego and power and a place in the new galactic order. This Commander chose to stay not for himself, but to help those who couldn’t help themselves.

The knowledge burned something inside him, but Hunter buried it down.

This is who I am. .

“We all thought he was crazy when he reached out to Rex,” Gregor piped up, his blaster discarded on the bench next to him. “The whole thing was his idea. We warned him it was suicide, but he didn’t care. Rex thought he’d be dead within a month, but he’s been helping clones get out for nearly two years now. Howzer kept telling him it was time to get out before he got caught, but he wouldn’t listen. Now here we are.”

“I tried to get him to come with me. Told him if they found out what he’d done, they’d kill him.” Boil snorted. “You know what he said to me? He said ‘ stop being a noble di’kut and get in the ship before I stun you and put the chip back in. ’”

They all frowned at the threat, Gregor giggling from his place in the corner.

“I’m glad to be going back for the Commander,” Boil said. “Obviously I wish it were in better circumstances. I know it was his decision to stay behind, but it still felt wrong leaving him there, you know? Colt always said we never leave a man behind.”

“Yeah,” Echo said quietly, eyes meeting Hunter’s across the room. “I know the feeling.”

Hunter held Echo’s gaze, same as he always did when the topic came up over the last two years. And same as every other time, in the face of Echo’s admonishment, Hunter said nothing in return. There was nothing to say that hadn’t already been discussed at length.

Repeatedly.

Loudly.

Wrecker and Tech glanced at each other over Echo’s head while Omega averted her eyes to the ground.

The ship shook as it dropped out of hyperspace and Hunter took that as his que to get moving.

“Rex said we’ll be touching down soon,” he said, stepping fully into the room. “We should start getting ready.”

As the others moved over to Gregor to begin gearing up, Echo stood and held Hunter’s gaze a moment longer. Hunter shook his head and Echo sighed before moving to join the others.

He had a feeling they’d be having that discussion once again once this mission was over.

Hunter felt a hand in his and he looked down to meet Omega’s eyes. She smiled sadly at him, squeezing his hand. He squeezed back, but couldn’t quite drudge up the willpower to smile in return.

“C’mon,” he said instead, “let’s gear up.”

She nodded and walked over to the group, helping Echo loop his pack over his scomp arm. Hunter watched them all and tried not to think about the weird feeling lingering in the back of his mind.

“Alright,” Rex said as the ramp to the ship lowered. They’d landed in the forest, hidden at the bottom of the mountain the same as they had last time. Gregor helped Tech and Rex navigate the ship to an area below the mountain where there was a hidden entry point similar to the vents they had escaped through last time.

“Echo, Hunter, Tech, Boil, and Gregor - you’re with me. Wrecker, stay with the ship.”

“Wha- oh, come on!” Wrecker said, slipping his helmet up to stare at Rex with wide eyes. “I can help!”

“You will help,” Rex held his hands up placatingly, “we need someone to stay with the ship that can meet us at the exit. I get a feeling we’re going to need to make a quick get away.”

“Aww, why can’t Tech do it?”

“We need Tech to help Gregor and Echo hack the systems,” Rex explained calmly. “This is a stealth mission, Wrecker, and those aren’t your, uh… strong suit.”

Wrecker groaned, pulling his helmet off and slunking off to sit on a crate. Omega patted his hand.

“Sorry, Wrecker. But I just can’t take any risks with this.”

“Nah, I understand,” and to Wrecker’s credit, he did sound like he meant it.

Rex nodded and gestured for the others to follow him off the ship.

Before Omega could get far, Hunter grabbed her elbow.

“Omega.... I want you to stay on the ship with Wrecker.”

Omega frowned.

“Why? I can help!”

Hunter sighed. She stood with arms crossed as she leveled a glare at Hunter and her eyes filled with that stubborn indignation she’d been showing more and more since she’d reached her teenage years.

As she got older, every time she glared at him like that she looked more and more like--

“We’re walking straight into an Imperial base,” Hunter said, trying to keep his tone as even as possible. “You remember what happened last time.”

“It was my idea to help on this mission.”

“It was,” Hunter conceded. “Though, you didn’t exactly talk it through with us before offering.”

She had the grace to look a little chastised at that.

“This is dangerous, Omega. High level stuff, not what we usually do. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

He trailed off and the fire seemed to go out from under Omega with her disappointed sigh.

“Fine,” she said. “But I don’t like it. If you get caught again, we will be having words.”

Hunter chuckled. “Noted.”

Her eyes searched his face a moment longer before she flung her arms around his waist, burying her face in his chest.

“Be careful.”

“I will,” he rested his chin on top of her curls. “I promise.”

Hunter’s commlink beeped and Rex’s voice filled the room.

“Hunter, let’s move out.”

Omega pulled back and crossed her arms as Hunter pulled on his helmet. She waved to him as he walked down the ramp, her and Wrecker both watching as the group started making their way toward the base of the mountain.

Hunter stared up at the mountain as they worked their way through the forest, his mind jumping back to the last time they had been on this planet, attempting a rescue from this exact base. Hopefully this time went better than the last. Hopefully no one was captured again. Hopefully they could get in and out without alerting anyone, though his squad was never that lucky.

Hopefully Crosshair isn’t here, Hunter thought as they climbed into the vent shaft. They hadn’t seen nor heard from Crosshair since the day they left Tipoca City. The Empire was large and the Galaxy even larger, so the chances were slim. He hoped. He really wasn’t in the mood to deal with a family reunion today.

#cady writes #the bad batch #tbb #star wars the bad batch #star wars tbb #tbb crosshair #crosshair #tbb hunter #tbb wrecker #tbb tech #tbb omega #tbb echo #the bad batch fanfiction

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gallavictorious · 3 years

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Once again the fandom coming together to daydream about Mickey helping Ian out and seeing him back on track to become an emt again but why is that on Mickey? Why does he always have to do things to make Ian happy when Ian's usually nothing but annoyed by Mickey and does nothing to make Mickey happy? Truly shows which character y'all care about more.

This got absurdly long, because I am who I am and did take the opportunity to go off on a tangent about valid conclusions and what not, so I put it under a cut. Read at your own risk! Oh, and I also do address the actual question about whether or not Ian's career is on Mickey, and whether or not Ian never does anything to make Mickey happy. ;)

For the sake of clarity, I got this ask in response to this post.

And I gotta say, nonnie, getting this ask perplexed me to the point of running off to Trusted Fandom Friends, demanding to know how my undying love and loyalty for Mickey could ever be doubted. Had to laugh at myself a little, actually, and the strenght of my befuddlement. It reminded me of the time I went on a trip with people from the 501st (cosplayers dedicated to the bad guys in Star Wars) and Rebel Legion (cosplayers dedicated to the good guys in Star Wars) and a lot of people assumed I was a Rebel sympathizer simply because I had friends in that group and those were the people who had invited me. Excuse me, I didn't yell, I have like 30 Darth Vaders in my damned home, how dare you question my allegiance? I was so used to always being known as a diehard Vaderkin fangirl that the mer fact of strangers failing to recognize me as such genuinely fucked a little with my sense of identity. My love of Mickey isn't anywhere near as deeply ingrained into my sense of self, since he's only been an occasional presence in my life since 2016 while Darth Vader's been my main man since 1994, but it was still a little jarring to suddenly find myself (mis)identified as an Ian stan.

Being a fangirl is strange.

And I want to make it clear that I do love Ian. He's a fascinating character and, to me, he's a character that's often much harder to understand than Mickey. He rewards careful analysis and discussion, though, so I guess I tend to talk a lot about him? I don't need to spend as much time considering Mickey's feelings and motivations because they are (almost) always pretty obvious; I don't need to tease them out. But at the end of the day, Mickey is my favourite. (Though I'll always love Ian and Mickey together more than I love either of them on their own. It's like fresh cilantro and mint – each perfectly lovely in their own right, but the combination of them creates a flavour that's just out of this world.)

Now, you might argue that you don't follow me and so have no idea who I am and what I like to post about, and that going only by that single post (which, in fairness, was tagged with 'i just want ian to be happy okay?') I give off the general impression of an Ian stan. And that's fair enough; I'm an obscure blog in a decently big fandom and you're not required to keep track of anyone. However, if you want to throw around passive aggressive accusations of caring more about one character than the other, I will ask you to do your research first. Reacting to one single piece of data without considering the context is a common but highly unfortunate practice that needlessly complicates meaningful conversations, and we'd all do well to abstain from it.

Oh, you don't want to spend a lot of time and energy on consdering every single thing a specific Tumblr blog has ever said on a specific topic just so you can draw a valid conclusion about their stance? That's perfectly understandable, nonnie, and easily sorted: refrain from making unsubstantiated claims about what other people think or don't think and you won't have to. Ask them, if you wonder. If you see a tendency in fandom to put the responsibility for Ian's wellbeing and career or Mickey's shoulders and want to discuss that, that's totally cool! I am game (and will address that question below)! But it's very possible to do that without somewhat rudely ascribing perferences and opinions to other people, and you'll get better answers for it (for instance, you won't have to wade through me rambling on about valid conclusions and my memories from other fandoms... ).

It seems to me, though, that this touches upon a long-held frustration of yours. If I interpret your ask correctly, you think the show gives us an Ian who is mostly annoyed with Mickey and doesn't do anything to make him happy, and you think that the fandom responds to this by relegating Mickey to the role of Ian's caretaker, whose sole purpose is to serve Ian's needs without any regard for what might Mickey himself happy. Have I got that right?

If so, it should be noted that I don't agree with either of these takes: I don't think that's the Ian the show gives us (a point I will return to below), and I don't think that fandom at large only cares about Ian's happiness, and I particularly don't think that my post can be used a evidence of the latter.

For instance, when you sent me this ask the post in question had all of 40 notes. As I write this, it has just over 70. ”The fandom coming together” seems to be slightly overstating the case, don't you think? There are certainly fans who care more about Ian and only see Mickey as valuable as long as he contributes to Ian's happiness, just as there are fans who care more about Mickey and only see Ian as valuable as long as he contributes to Mickey's happiness - but this single post with less than a hundred notes does not support that either of these stances would be predominant within the fandom. (And, while on the topic, I'd like to state that I don't actually see a problem with either of those stances; these are fictional characters that exists for our entertainment and we don't have any moral obligations to treat them equally and fairly. Don't ruin other fans' fun by dumping on either of them in the character or shipping tags or on character and shipping posts and this is not a problem. It might be a somewhat unpopular opinion, but I don't think you have to love or even like all characters in a ship to ship it: I refuse to drink plain tea because it's nasty but put a splash of milk in it and its my favourite thing ever. You can love a combination without loving all the seperate pieces on their own. And yeah, I do revert to food metaphors a lot. I like food.)

Secondly, whether or not the post can be said to represent the feeling of the fandom at large (it cannot), I think that reading a post specifically about ”Mickey helping Ian out and seeing him back on track to become an emt again” and then extrapolating from that that Mickey ”always have to do things to make Ian happy” is a little wild. The very first thing I wrote for this fandom was a vision of Ian offering Mickey comfort, goddammit. (Ian giving Mickey a hug is so high on my list of desires, you can't even imagine)

As for your actual question (and, ah, imagine how much shorter this post would be if you had just left it at that) – of course that's not on Mickey. That much, incidentally, I've actually explicitly stated in another post. Ian might have his issues but he's still an adult and responsible for himself. That being said, I don't see it as particularly strange that someone would go out of their way to help their partner when they see them struggling? If I realize that someone I care about is unhappy and there's a way for me to help, I would want to help because I love them and want them to be happy, even if it's – ethically speaking – not my responsibility to do so. Pretty sure Mickey, who is action-oriented and so very protective of the people he loves, feels the same way.

Of course, if it's a one-sided thing – if one partner is always the one to do stuff for the other and never receives any support in return – that's not a healthy relationship, and I assume that this is what you're seeing in the show and taking exception to?

Only... I can't help but wonder who this Ian is, this uncaring, selfish version you see – because I don't quite get how it can be the Ian who emptied his bank account for Mickey, or the Ian who was ready to throw his parole and stay in prison for Mickey even when they were in the middle of a fight specifically because Mickey said it would make him happy, or the one who kept trying to talk to Mickey and win him back after Mickey punched him in the face, accidentally broke his leg, and took off with a new lover (I'm not taking sides in this one, btw – I have a lot of sympathy and understanding for both of them and their actions throughout this whole sorry affair), or the Ian who immediately wanted to marry Mickey protect him from the consequences of a murder Ian thought he had actually comitted, or the Ian who went along with arranging a real wedding even though he initially didn't at all understand why this was important to Mickey and who had someone come serenade him once he did, or the Ian who chose At last for Mickey to walk up to the aisle to, or the Ian who keeps trying to reach out to Mickey and to touch him and discuss their issues in a mature way even when he's (justifiably) upset about Mickey using all their wedding money without telling Ian. (Though Ian deciding for both of them that they're saving the money isn't great either.)

I mean, Ian's absolutely done shitty things, as has Mickey. They're human, and they're the products of a chaotic and often hostile enviroment. They do mess up a lot; they've hurt each other rather badly over the years. Depending on your perspective and preferences, you may think one or the other have behaved worse, but as far as I can see, the claim that Ian never does anything to make Mickey happy is simply not supported.

Ian has seemed unusually annoyed with Mickey this season, I'll give you that, but while that's not always the most fun thing to watch and I strongly sympathize with the wish to just see Ian look at Mickey with that fond look again, I don't find him being frustrated right now all that weird, given the circumstances. I'd argue it has less to do with Mickey and more to do with a general frustration over thwarted ambitions and not being able to hold on even to a really shitty job, though Mickey's attitude doesn’t exactly help (which is not to say that I think that Ian's the one in the right here, becasue Ian's way of handling things hasn't always been been stellar either). However, I do have faith in them sorting this out – because even though they fight and bicker and get annoyed with each other, there's never any indication that they're not both committed to making this marriage thing work. They certainly stumble, they misunderstand each other and lash out, but they calm down and go to sleep in the same bed and compromise and keep trying. Every day, they – both of them – choose each other.

I'd like to finish this off by noting, even though it's not entirely relevant to my argument, that that the number one thing that does make Mickey happy is being together with Ian, and even when Ian is pissed at Mickey and withholding sex (which was very ill-advised but says a lot of interesting things about his character, I think!) no one's sleeping on the couch, there are no nights away from the house and each other, and even in the middle of an argument they sit and stand next to each other. I think that's pretty telling of Ian's dedication, especially given his propensity for running away from his problems.

Phew. Okay, nonnie – though we don't agree and I doubt you'll find this answer satisfactory, I hope you see that I have done my best to understand your point of view and treat your arguments fairly and give you a thoughtful response. If you'd like to get back to me and elaborate on your stance, I'd ask that you show me the same courtesy. :)

#asks #i don't even know what to tag this i spent five hours writing it and my brain is mush #meta #i guess?

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redrobinhoood · 4 years

Text

no choir | chapter 2, we had it for a moment

A/N: If you don’t know about Darth Vader and Fox then keep it that way.

AO3 Link | 2500 words (approx) | Chapter 1, Chapter 3

Chapter Summary: Fox returns to Riyo with his new assignment- the lockdown of the Jedi Temple.

“What’s on your mind?” Riyo began to lower herself back onto the bed beside Fox. Instead, Fox reached over and pulled her down so that she lay on top of him once more. She draped her arms over his shoulders, putting her weight into her forearms so as to not dig her elbows into his ribs as she propped herself up on his chest. “There’s something bothering you.”

“I have a new assignment.”

“Something dangerous?”

“A Jedi.” He watched her expression morph from concern into alarm. “We lock down the Jedi Temple again, starting tomorrow afternoon.”

“Have you been back since-?”

“Since the Temple burned? No.” He hadn’t even been the one initially assigned to the Temple. Commander Stone had gone with the riot team to keep civilians out. But the team hadn’t considered that the 501st wouldn’t be able to keep all the Jedi in. By the time Fox got there, the team had been nearly destroyed. He had arrived just in time to watch a Jedi bury her blade in Stone’s chest. He had died in Fox’s arms.

Riyo took in his gaze for a few moments before she removed her arms from his shoulders and pushed herself forward so that she could press her lips into the soft flesh underneath his jaw. He welcomed the distraction, tangling a hand up in her hair. He’d never known that women smelled so good until he’d lived with Riyo. Of course, he’d been familiar with the general concept, but nothing could’ve prepared him for all the different scents of hair products and soap and lotion and even the scent of makeup on her face. If he didn’t shower in the morning, they’d have been found out in a heartbeat.

“I love you.” He sighed.

“You’d better.” She murmured against his skin before pushing herself up to look him in the eye. “I love you too.”

He pulled her back down, rolling over to the side and tangling their legs together as he held her against him, one arm sufficient to keep her pinned. “I know that you don’t like me bringing up my own mortality, but I want you to know that if I die on this assignment that the past few months have been the happiest months of my life.”

She huffed and tried to unsuccessfully untangle herself from his arms before giving in. “Mine too, Fox. But I still want more of them, you hear me?”

“What was that? Your voice is all muffled.”

“I said, I don’t really care either way.”

“Wow. When Darth Vader strangles me to death tomorrow I’ll be sure to remember that.”

“Don’t guilt trip me, Fox.” She squirmed one arm out of his hold and reached up to cup his jaw in her hand. “I truly, deeply, love you, CC-1010.”

“Oh, I’m in trouble now?”

“Yes, very bad trouble.”

"How exciting.” Keeping a tight hold around her body he began to run his free hand down her back. Her skin was so soft, unbroken by scars, and sometimes he wondered how a creature as soft as she could love one whose body had been so ruined. How could she bear to kiss him when the touch was interrupted by the raw scar across his lips? Did she know that it came from the blade of the Jedi who had killed Stone?

“I’ve been thinking about getting a tattoo, you know.”

“Oh?” That had been the last direction he’d expected this conversation to go in. “And what sort of tattoo do you fancy?”

“A fox, Fox. I want to tattoo your namesake on me. Right here.” She moved away from him and placed her hand underneath her breast. “A little white fox running across my skin. Will you still love me if I do that?”

“Of course I will still love you.”

“Then why do you think that your scars would be any different? Don’t deny it, I can read your mind. No matter what happens to your body I will still love you just as much as I always have.”

Fox sighed and slide down so that their faces were level. “What if my brain was taken out of my body and you could only communicate with me by whooping?”

“Then we would have the most interesting conversations about the universe.” She rubbed her nose against his for a moment before tucking her head under his chin and wrapping an arm across his waist. “Go to sleep, Fox. You’ll need to be in top form tomorrow.”

He rolled over onto his back, pulling her with him so that she was pillowed in his chest as she had been the first night he’d held her. He leaned his head against hers, breathing in the scent of her shampoo. “I’m always in top form.” He murmured. When he held her like this, he could let all of his thoughts drift away. Tonight, only one remained with him; nobody, not even Darth Vader, could take him from her.

Riyo jolted awake with a cry. Before she could fully register that she was awake, that the nightmare was gone, or where she was, she found herself being pulled into Fox’s arms and held against him. She reached up, fumbling for his neck, and pressed one hand against his spine. She could feel the soft exhales of his breath against her forearm.

"I’m here, cyar’ika, I’m here.”

“Tell your men not to fire on the one with the red lightsaber. Please, Fox.” Her voice broke on his name and she began to sob.

He reached over and cupped her face in one hand before he brought her head down onto his shoulder. He leaned his own head against hers and began to run his thumb over the green arcs of her cheeks. “What did you dream, cyar’ika?”

"You were dead. He snapped-.” She stopped as her sobs became hiccups and Fox began to rub circles into her back. “He snapped your neck. Just like that. You fell. I watched you fall.”

“Who snapped my neck, Ri?” His steady voice held no hint of fear.

“A shadow. I watched you fall.”

“But I’m right here, Riyo. Cyare Riyo, I’m still here.” He took her hand in his and placed it against his chest. “I live, I breathe, can’t you feel my heartbeat?”

She pressed her hand into his sternum and tried to focus on the beating beneath her palm and the slow rise and fall of Fox’s chest. Her hiccupping sobs were becoming quieter, but she couldn’t stop the flood of tears streaming down her cheeks. Fox lifted his head from hers and began to kiss her cheeks. “I’m alive, Riyo. Ner ka’ra, ner me’suum’ika.”

“I don’t know what you’re saying.” She managed to get out between sobs. “If I find out that you’ve been calling me a rat this whole time-.” The threat died to a tiny sob. She could feel Fox’s chest begin to shake beneath her as he fought off laughter. “Don’t laugh at me! I’m distraught.”

“Do you really think that I would take advantage of you like that?” She could look right into his eyes now; that beautiful dark brown that reminded her of home. How she wished she could take him to Pantora, take him anywhere but here.

“No, I don’t.” The little flare of anger had cleared away her hiccupping sobs, but it had not wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I trust you, Fox.”

“Then brush your hair and put on some civvies.”

She glanced towards her chronometer. “It’s nearly four-am and I’m a mess.”

“I’ll clean you up. Trust me.” He spoke with such confidence that she couldn’t help but give in.

“If I agree, you have to tell me what you’ve been calling me.”

“It’s a deal.”

The second-to-last place that Riyo had expected to go was into the Lower Levels. The last place was the Emperor’s home or office, but the Lower Levels were certainly a very close second. Despite the late hour, the streets were far from empty, though certainly not as crowded as they were in daytime. She and Fox wove through the crowd with his hand wrapped snugly around her waist, no different than the number of similarly hooded couples walking through the streets around them. She could almost imagine that they were one of them, if she could only shake the awareness that if Fox’s hood fell down the charade would be over. A clone was always recognizable as a clone, even in civvies.

“You still haven’t told me where we’re going.”

“You don’t need to know, Ri. Besides, we’re here.” He pulled her into the shadows of one of the alleys that snaked between the rundown buildings. They stopped before a beaten old door and knocked. Riyo snuck a quick look around the deserted alley as they waited. If it weren’t for Fox at her side, she would’ve felt unsafe. Even with him, she felt uneasy, though she was certain that she had watched him slip a holster around his waist before they left. After about a minute the door was unlocked and they were practically dragged inside a tight hallway by an elderly female Twi’lek.

“Commander Fox!” She exclaimed once the door had been shut and locked behind them. She clapped her hands on Fox’s shoulders as Fox lowered his hood. “It’s been too long.”

“It has. But you know how things have been recently. Ri, this is Sienn.”

Riyo pulled down her hood before shaking Sienn’s hand. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine. The commander has never brought a lady by before, or anyone for that matter. I keep telling him to bring some of the boys in white down here but he never does.”

“You don’t want them here. They’ll eat and drink you out of house and home.” Fox waved his hand in dismissal, a gesture that Riyo knew too well from spending her afternoons in his office.

"Speaking of which, let’s get you something to drink. Mariela, come back here and say hello to our guests!”

Another elderly female Twi’lek poked her head through a door and gestured at Sienn. “Come mind the bar while I say hello.” The two switched places, the swinging door bringing the scent of caf into the hall, and now it was Mariela’s turn to clap her hands on Fox’s shoulders. “It’s been a while, Commander Fox. I was beginning to think you’d forgotten all about us.”

“Never. Mariela, this is Ri. We needed to get out for a while.”

Mariela nodded knowingly. “Whatever it is you’re mixed up in, I don’t need to know about it. Are you quite alright, dear?” She asked Riyo, who felt thankful that Fox was trying his best to hide her identity.

"It’s been a long night, ma’am.”

“Oh, don’t ‘ma’am’ me, we’re all friends here. Let me get you something to drink. The usual, Commander?”

"Please.”

“And for you, dear?”

Riyo blinked, racking her mind for the name of a drink, any drink. “Do you have anything with chocolate?”

“I know exactly what you need. Wait here, it’ll only be a moment.” Mariela swooped back through the door. Riyo and Fox remained silent as they waited, though Fox had taken a hold of Riyo’s hand and was running his fingers across her palm. When Mariela returned, she was carrying two brightly patterned mugs, which she passed to them. “On the house.” She declared.

Riyo began to protest but Mariela wouldn’t let her.

“You’re welcome to the rooftop. Just leave the mugs by the kitchen door when you leave, okay?”

“Thank you, Mariela.” Fox said. “And give Sienn my thanks as well.”

Riyo watched Mariela leave, catching a glimpse at a cramped café behind the door. Despite the early hour, or late hour, a few beings lingered in the shop. Then the door closed, and that world was gone to her. She was in Fox’s world now. She followed him to a turbolift, to a staircase, onto the roof of the building, then to a blanketed spot where she could sit beside him.

“So, what did you do to earn eternal free caf?” She asked once she was comfortably leaning against his shoulder.

“Thorn and I saved their tooka from a fire.”

“Their tooka?”

"Mhm.” He had a faraway look in his eyes. “We were out after our shifts ended for some drinks. We heard the commotion from the bar, followed the sound to the fire, and decided that the Coruscant Guard never leaves anyone behind. One tooka rescue later and we all went back to the bar together. Ran into them again a month later and they told us to stop by their new café.”

Riyo couldn’t help the giggle that rose in her throat and was rewarded with a kind smile from Fox. “You’re kidding.”

“Tooka’s name is Fenn. She likes to sleep in the front window of the café.”

“Fox. You are such a sweetheart.” Her giggles faded into comfortable silence as they began to sip at their caf. Finally, she couldn’t take the silence anymore. “What did you call me earlier, back in bed?”

“Ner ka’ra, my stars, ner me’suum’ika, my moon.”

“What about cyar’ika? What’s that?”

He turned to look at her, his eyes tracing over the curves of her face. “Cyar’ika I will keep to myself for now.”

“I’ll ask Jek and Rys if you don’t tell me.”

“You should, they’ve missed seeing you. They ask about you all the time.”

“I’ll bring some sweets by again sometime.”

“Please. They need the morale boost.” He waited for her to take a sip from her mug before he continued. “Are you okay?”

She sighed, her breath rippling across the liquid before her. “I’m worried about you. I would give anything, anything, Fox, to run away and to take you far away from here.” But she couldn’t.

“Riyo, I could never take you away from your post, from your people. They need your voice in the Senate just as much as my brothers need me.” He lay his hand on her thigh. “If that ever changes, know that I will be right there by your side. But right now, they need us.”

She turned to look him in the eye. “Fox, did I ever tell you how much I love your blind loyalty?”

“You’ve mentioned it a few times, yes.”

“Well, I love your blind loyalty. And I could never ask you to go against your beliefs.” Her drink finished, she threw an arm around Fox and lay her head on his shoulder. “Never change, my love.”

Fox wrapped his arm around her for a moment, drawing her in before letting her go as he prepared to rise to his feet. “We should head back. I have a meeting with the Emperor I cannot miss.” If there was the quiver of a lie in his voice it was lost in the rustle of cloaks in the breeze.

#foxiyo #commander fox #cc-1010 #riyo chuchi #my fics #no choir fic

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