Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Echo is sitting down at one of the tables, watching Omega at the arcades, when Cid approaches. She watches him for a moment.

“Got something you want to say?” Echo asks glancing up, Cid’s face could be described as brooding. Or sober.

“I couldn’t help but notice you had blue on your armor,” she says, gesturing to the symbol. “I heard clones use paint to differentiate legions,”

“And?”

“You were part of another legion weren’t you?”

Echo can’t see the harm in telling her, “Yeah,”

Cid looks at him again with sharp eyes. Hesitating, contemplating.

“Your Fives’s Echo aren’t you?” she says at last and Echo freezes.

It’s been so long since he heard his brother’s name, since someone else spoke about him, since someone referred to him as that. Fives’s Echo.

They had been twins, inseparable. FivesandEcho and EchoandFives. Where one came the other went. Domino twins.

If one had met Fives or Echo they had heard of the other.

Fives’s Echo, Echo’s Fives.

Echo looks at her with wide eyes, before setting down his drink and straightening.

“When,” he says a bit shaky, “where, how?” briefly, he's reminded of one of Ahsoka's textbooks on Basic and writing when he'd helped her back then.

She sits down beside him.

“He came here, several times,” she begins. “The Jedi sent him. The first time I met him, he was loud,”

Echo scoffs, Fives had always been loud.

“Boisterous, happy, annoying,” Cid looks at him. “Next I saw him,” she sighs, “he wasn’t. I asked him what happened and he told me his batchmate died.”

“Then?” Echo prompts.

“Hold your rancors,” Cid says irritably, “I’m not finished, yet. Over time, I met him some more and he told me about you. You, ARC-Trooper-1409, or 21-0408, whatever, Echo.” She points a finger at him.

“How’d you guess it was me?” Echo asks.

“I wouldn’t be in this job alive if I didn’t have brain, would I?” she stands up. “Now, finish your drink. Tiny!” she addresses Omega, “hurry up, I’ll close up soon.”

Chapter Text

When they return back from their next mission Cid calls Echo back as they're leaving.

Hunter raises a questioning brow but Echo is as clueless as him, so all Echo does is shrug.

After everyone has left, Cid uncrosses her arms and picks something up and hands it to Echo.

"What is that?" Echo asks. Cid may have a soft spot for Omega but Cid is still an hardass. To add to all of that, today is... it's not Echo's day, to say the least. He hated it since the moment he got up.

"Relax, it's not a booby trap or trick." Cid sets it on the table when Echo doesn't take it.

"It’s a shell." he looks up at Cid. "Why are you giving me a shell?" Echo asks flatly.

"I know today… it's probably not a good day for you." Cid says. "So," she gestures towards the shell.

"What does a shell have to do with anything?" Echo asks. He doesn't understand because how does she know and a SHELL? Of all things, a shell. Not just that he knows exactly what type of shell it is.The creature who created it lived in the highly bioluminesence ocean of this Mid-rim planet causing the shell to glow in the dark. Echo had once ranted to Fives about bioluminescense and about wanting something that glowed in the dark.

"I'm not that uncaring, you know," she says gruffly.

"No, I don’t."

Cid stares at him, Echo stares back. Finally, she sighs.

"Look, I did Fives a favor, alright?" she begins. "And he gave me that as a gift, said it was of this planet and was a rare glow in the dark shell. He said he'd pay me back properly when the chance came but…" Cid trails off.

They both know what comes after that.

"How do you know?" Echo asks softly. The silence is too grim, too still to be broken.

"Someone else came next time." Cid answers. "I asked and he said Fives was gone. Seemed to know Fives, knew when he died but didn't say why." Cid looks at him.

There's a hidden question there, if Echo knows what exactly what happened with Fives. Echo ignores it.

"You and Fives, you were close weren’t you?"

"He was a chill guy," Cid admits. "Fun to be around," she hesitates, "I missed him."

Echo doesn't say anything,he just nods, there's a lump in his throat.

They stay like that for a while before Cid breaks the silence.

"Take a seat, Echo." Cid says roughly, "I'll get some drinks."

"Am I paying? Echo jokes weakly.

"Nahh, at least for today!" she turns around to send a sharp look. "Today," she turns back around, "today, its for Fives."

"For Fives." Echo echoes.

-

When Echo came back to the Havoc Marauder, it was well into the night, Hunter was still up.

Echo caught sight of him. "You didn't have to stay up," he says.

Hunter shrugged, "Why'd she call you?"

Echo doesn't want to explain all of a sudden. For some selfish reason, he wants to keep Fives a secret, this is his, one shred of privacy in their small quarters. He had never spoken of his brothers to Bad Batch, afraid that they would see themselves as replacements.

It was totally the reason why Echo didn't tell them about his batch. It wasn't like Echo hurt whenever he thought back to his batchmates. Totally.

Echo dealt with some problems by ignoring them.

"She knew someone that I knew," Echo says, "He died today."

"I'm sorry," Hunter says, Echo can tell he knows there's more yet Hunter doesn't press. Echo's thankful for little things.

"It wasn't your fault, you didn't even know him."

"But I do know you, and I know it hurts."

Echo offers Hunter a pale smile, and, on impulse, hugs him. Hunter is taken off guard but he leans into the hug.

Echo pulls himself up and pats Hunter's shoulder, "You should sleep."

"You're one to talk," Hunter returns.

…

In bed, Echo pulls out the shell and it shines a pale blue. Unbeknownst to himself, he smiles faintly. The blue deepens faintly into the shell's creases. The blue is deepest in the inside of the shell.

He stuck against his ear, wondering if the stories of seashells singing were true. He didn't hear anything, maybe they were just stories or he was holding it wrong.

Echo turned the shell over in his hands.

He might drill it, just a tiny hole, he'd ask Tech or Wrecker for help. Then he'd string it to make a makeshift necklace.

Or maybe it was to big and clunky for that. He'd secure it in a pouch and keep it with him. Or should he leave it in the Marauder, in case he lost it?

Echo fell asleep clutching the shell in his one hand.