AHSOKA | Coming August 2023

He’s tired

Imagine.

After whatever happens on Mount Tantiss, Crosshair escapes with the BB, but doesn't join the team. It was so long since he worked with them and their relationship is too strained for now, so he goes out into the world as a mercenary/bounty hunter/man for hire.

On his missions he meets many regs who either defected or want an out from the empire, so he starts handing out business cards saying to contact "him" when they need help.

All of a sudden there is a new reg at the Marauder's doorstep each week asking for a place to stay and Hunter tries to say no each time, but Echo just says "I am a reg too and you helped me" and since Hunter hasn't come up with a good rebuttal yet, the Bad Batch now consists of 4 actual modified clones, Echo and 20+ regs who keep showing up out of nowhere.

Omega is delighted though- she has so many uncles now.

The notes 🤣🤣🤣

This is something they would absolutely do!

the 501st and 212th are fundraising for a new caf machine

And Crosshair still hit his target!

Ok yes crosshairs sight is sensitive yes, but if anyone has ever used thermal imaging, that would fuck anyone up, like yeah its not as intense as nightvision but holy damn if something over bright hits a FLIR anyone is gonna be seeing spots for a while

Uh-oh. Time for an unsettling prediction...

They pulled out the stops with this image, and it's not good.

We are shown Omega sitting in wide-eyed innocence in her little room on the ship. She is unarmed, with a doll on her lap and a ball nearby, propped up on the cushioning Wrecker installed for her comfort. This is her safe and happy life on the Marauder, and it is very likely the opposite of what the writers have planned for her.

If you think those dark circles under Hunter's eyes are bad now, just imagine how he will look once the Empire has Omega.

I have a guess for the last two episodes of the season. I think taking Omega will be the last straw in The Bad Batch's relative passivity toward engaging the Empire, and EVERYONE will be part of the mission to get her back. Getting to "The Summit" of Mount Tantiss to rescue her (and possibly Nala Se) might just be the "Plan 99" we are all wondering about.

if you can, could you write a short about echo talking to the batch about the rest of domino? could be pre-show or post-show, maybe when crosshair's joined back up with the batch

they are very important to me, thank you anon 😌

*insert the obligatory "echo finds hevy's medal on the marauder" fic*

Kashyyyk had been a welcome respite after the recovery of Cody and Crosshair from the Empire.

Gungi had been more than excited to welcome his friends back, greeting Omega with a joyful hug that had the blonde giggling brightly as she returned the embrace. The rest of the Batch watched the interaction warmly, glad to see their youngest member being so happy upon reuniting with the young Jedi.

Rex had joined the Batch after Cody and Crosshair’s rescue, unable to part himself from his brother’s side.

After a day of quiet recovery on the forest planet, Echo set himself to organizing the crates that had been languishing in the Marauder’s storage hold, completely untouched over the past months of racing around the galaxy.

Distantly, he could hear Omega begging Crosshair to help her with her bow. He chuckled to himself, knowing that his little sister had been waiting for the day when she could get tutelage from their marksman brother. Digging through one of the messy crates, Echo flinched as his hand was poked by something cool, and he frowned. Grasping the object, he pulled it out into the light, and immediately froze as he recognized it.

“Oh…”

The gold sunburst glinted in the afternoon light that streamed through the Marauder’s open hatch, the green and blue ribbon faded, but still holding together.

Echo knew 99 still had the medal, but he hadn’t known what happened to it after his older brother’s death. Thinking it back over, it made sense for 99 to have given it to his own batch.

“Echo! Find anything interesting?”

The ARC was startled out of his musings by the sound of Wrecker’s shout, and he stood, holding the medal tightly in his hands as he exited the Havoc Marauder.

Rex looked up from where he was speaking with Cody, immediately noting a difference in Echo’s mannerisms.

“Vod’ika?”

Echo simply held up the medal, a small, sad smile on his face. “I haven’t seen one of these in a long time.”

Hunter’s face was bittersweet. “It was 99’s.” He approached Echo, reaching out to brush his fingers across the medal. “He gave it to us when we went off on our first mission.”

“That looks like your medal, Ey’ika.” Rex prodded gently, making Echo huff out a laugh. Of course his older brother knew something else was going on. “From when you passed the test.”

“You’ve got a medal?” Omega asked excitedly, moving around Hunter to get a peek at the object.

Echo nodded, walking to where Crosshair and Tech were seated, quietly enjoying each other’s company. He sat himself beside his grey-haired brother, taking comfort from how Crosshair didn’t tense up like he did when Hunter or Wrecker sat beside him. Rex sat on Echo’s other side, a quiet pillar of comfort.

“99 and I got our medals at the same time.” Echo began to explain, voice quiet. “His was given to him by a clone named Hevy.”

Tech cocked his head. “99 did mention it was a gift from a friend.”

“You knew the guy who gave this to 99?” Wrecker asked.

It was only Rex’s presence and Cody’s silent support from where he was sitting opposite them that kept Echo from falling apart then and there, the pain of thinking about his Domino squad often too much to bear.

“Hevy was my brother.” He said after letting out a breath. “He was the oldest of our batch, and a kriffing asshole half the time, and an overprotective mother tooka the other half of the time. He was selfless, and stupid, and everything 99 wanted him to be.” Rex shifted, wrapping an arm around Echo’s shoulders as he spoke. “Then there was Cutup. He was almost as bad as Hevy when it came to smothering us after training. He was always worried we weren’t eating enough, and when he wasn’t smothering us, he was trying to prank anyone who looked at our squad wrong.”

“Sounds like we’d get along with them.” Hunter said with a small grin.

Cody’s eyes suddenly widened with horror. “Can you imagine.”

Echo let out a loud laugh. “Oh, Hev and Cut would have loved you guys.” His face grew a touch sadder, and he leaned more into Rex, who tightened the arm he had around his shoulders. “Then there was Fives and I. Fives was older by literal seconds, but he still held it over me every chance he got.” He couldn’t bring himself to talk more about his twin, and instead pushed on, fighting to keep himself from crying. “Finally… there was Droidbait. He was the baby of the squad, and never did anything wrong in his life.”

“Didn’t you and Fives tell the story of how Droidbait started a food fight during your last day on Kamino?” Rex asked, suspicion in his voice.

Echo raised an eyebrow at his former captain. “Again, ‘Bait never did anything wrong in his life. Ever.”

Beside him, as he had been speaking, Crosshair’s posture had grown more and more relaxed until he was leaning into Echo, arms pressed together as he listened.

“I remember that.” The marksman said, voice quiet and hesitant. Echo immediately glanced at Hunter, who was obviously holding back a small grin at the sound of their brother’s voice.

“I believe Wrecker was enthusiastically involved in widening the range of that chaos.” Tech supplied helpfully.

Echo snorted. “I wouldn’t be surprised. ‘Bait was especially excited at how extreme it went so quickly.” The rest of the clones laughed, and Wrecker’s face was gleeful as he remembered that specific day, tucked at a corner table with his own batch, watching as a group of newly graduated clones cackled and teased one another.

Echo was surprised to find how easily the stories of his brothers fell from his mouth. Instead of the pang of heartbreak over his lost, there was nothing but warmth that filled him, as though Domino was sitting around him, laughing along with the stories.

Omega scooted closer, eyes bright as she asked for more stories, and Echo was only happy to oblige, grinning as Crosshair’s snarky comments interrupted him ever now and again.

It wasn’t the same, but Echo was content in knowing that he could pass on his brothers’ stories and memories.

“I never thought we’d go out this way.”

season 6, I'm suffering 🥹

1/2

- Echo still can't sleep well. He either suffers from insomnia, or from pain, or from nightmares.

- When Echo has nightmares, he hides his face in his pillow. Nobody really knows why. Everyone agreed that he doesn't realize where he is when he sleeps, which means that he cannot feel safe.

- Actually, it's true. But deep down, Echo also doesn't want anyone to see him like this - trembling and crying.

- PTSD is a topic that no one brings up. He is afraid of medical equipment, syringes, droppers, droids... The creak of a rubber glove is worse than death.

- No matter how strong he may seem, the complexes follow him like a shadow. Echo hates each of his implants, he is annoyed by the reflection in the mirror. Whitened skin, dark circles around the eyes, gray-yellow iris. "Looks like I'm dead," he jokes. But everyone knows that this is not a joke.

- Hunter says being able to kick someone with an iron foot is cool. Omega sometimes sticks stickers on prostheses. Echo is still beautiful no matter what he thinks.

- Even if he can't convince himself of this, Echo remains incredibly grateful to the guys for their support. He removes the stickers only when they are completely worn out.

- Omega will always find more.

- Wrecker always succumbs to him in arm wrestling. He is definitely a great actor. Echo still didn't quite understand. Yes, definitely.

- Echo sleeps peacefully when someone hugs him. This duty, without any hesitation, took Tech.

- Echo sleeps peacefully when someone hugs him. This duty, without any hesitation, took Tech.

- Sometimes it happens that they stop somewhere to rest a little, and then it happens that the team has to be woken up in the morning, otherwise they can oversleep until the evening. Of course, this is what Echo does. He turns up his favorite songs so that they can be heard throughout the Marauder.

Bonus: Echo was the first person Crosshair not only allowed himself to hug, but hugged back.