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Sometimes, Echo found it funny to compare Omega, their sister, to the Bad Batch. She clearly had Wrecker’s tactility, his kindness and his cheerful manner, you rarely saw her without a smile like Wrecker. She was able to quickly become serious, like Hunter, and had picked up tactical skills from both Hunter and Echo himself. She was smart like Tech – not as smart as he was, though she seemed to love learning anything she could from anyone. She worried a lot, like Hunter, and she was also surprisingly brave like Hunter, willing to do anything for her brothers. She showed the makings of a good leader, she was respectful, like Echo was, and confident like Echo, as well as being fine with being proven wrong, and willing to listen to criticism.
She didn’t hold grudges, like Wrecker, and she worked very hard to learn to be the best at everything, and seemed to have a brave and kind manner no matter what life threw at her. She was really the best of all of them, all things considered, without Wrecker’s recklessness, Hunter’s self-depreciating attitude, Tech’s coldness or even Echo’s grumpiness. She loved everyone and everything, and forgave people easily, understanding with an open mind everyone, even people like Crosshair.
But she had nothing at all in common with Crosshair. Actually, she was Crosshair’s polar opposite. He was cold, sullen, unwilling to trust and unmovable about anything he made a choice about, even if he knew he was in the wrong. Omega’s sunny and cheerful attitude was completely different from Crosshair’s dour and defensive attitude.
That made sense, at first, seeing how she’d never been around Crosshair, and barely met him, she didn’t have the opportunity to become like him. But Crosshair had been around the Bad Batch for years, and yet they were all so unlike him, so different from him, it was shocking. Omega was nothing at all like Crosshair because all her brothers were so wildly different from Crosshair.
And yet, though she was nothing like Crosshair, she seemed to have replaced Crosshair in the rest of the Bad Batch’s hearts. Not completely, they all missed their sharpshooting little brother a lot, but Omega had taken their brother’s place so much that they were somehow okay with leaving Crosshair with the Empire. Echo didn’t mean that they should always remain inconsolable and upset about Crosshair, but suddenly, everything seemed to revolve around Omega, her safety, whether she was happy enough, whether she had enough to eat.
Echo liked Omega enough, and accepted her into their family, but he didn’t love her as the others did, didn’t adore her like they did. She was a sister, not a Crosshair replacement, and she could manage herself like all clone children did, she didn’t need constant babying like Hunter seemed to insist on. But if they continued to do that, she’d never learn to be independent, and that was something she needed to learn, especially since she was growing up in the way she was.
Omega was a good child, and a better sister. Echo had seen more of how she helped his brothers than they knew, she’d seen her trying to make Hunter feel better when his senses annoyed him, amusing Wrecker when he was bored and trying to help Tech with the work around the ship. Omega had tried to help Echo also, insisting on being the one to run and fetch Tech when Echo’s joints needed help even though Echo could have easily commed Tech without moving.
The rest of the crew found it was sweet but Echo – he didn’t like it. He didn’t like that she felt the need to constantly be useful and help everyone, that should be the adults job, not the child’s job. After that, he quietly insisted that he could do his work himself, without help. He didn’t blame her for wanting to learn, but he didn’t want to rely on a child to help him when he could work perfectly well by himself.
She was very good at helping others – probably from her childhood helping Nala Se, that thought still made Echo’s heart hurt to think of the bright child with the strict Kaminoan – and she had a knack for appearing at the perfect point to be helpful. She always seemed to have a sixth sense for knowing when someone was annoyed or wanted something, and was incredibly good at figuring out what it was.
Echo sighed to himself leaning back against the wall as Omega darted into the dark bunkroom, bringing a breath of fresh air as she waved a floral bouquet of some local flower of the plant they were on. She was already chattering, and Wrecker, the only other person in the cabin, yawned, but listened to Omega and got up to join her outside.
As they passed, Omega skipping eagerly in her excitement, Omega glanced at Echo and found he was watching her. “You want to come too, Echo?” She invited, and Echo hastily shook his head, looking away awkwardly, embarrassed. How on earth did Crosshair always do that and manage to look threatening?
Maybe Echo was more like Crosshair than he thought.
Crosshair also had a way of getting problems solved, instead of helping like Omega did, he would glare at someone until something happened. It was shockingly effective, and anyone finding himself under Crosshair’s glare would be encouraged to figure out what was wrong and fix it. Whenever Hunter had a migraine, he wouldn’t do anything, he’d glare at Tech, Echo or Wrecker until they did something about it.
When Tech needed help, Echo would find himself under Crosshair’s glare to go help him, and vice versa. When Wrecker was bored – well normally he’d actually deal with himself by picking a fight with Wrecker or Echo that the other inevitably got himself drawn into. It was an interesting strategy that worked very well, as no one liked being under Crosshair’s glare.
Echo sighed, standing. It was late morning, there was no point being in the room anymore if he wasn’t going to sleep. He wandered down the ramp, breathing fresh air and saw Hunter supervising Wrecker and Omega’s game of tag. Tech was in the cockpit, he’d noted as he strolled by. Echo stretched tiredly, glancing around, before turning to climb up onto the Marauder’s roof.
That had used to be Crosshair’s favorite place outside of the ship, and now he was gone, Echo found himself coming here a lot. It always reminded him of Crosshair, of bittersweet memories of the snarky clone who pretended to hate them all but didn’t. The man appeared confusing and terrifying, but he really cared for his brothers and Echo loved him for it.
It was hard to say you knew Crosshair. Most people thought that they knew him when they realized he was a absolute pain and annoyance, believing that was all there was to him. But underneath that layer was the brother who cared for his brothers, even if he hated to show it, and that was the Crosshair Echo had found himself getting to know in the months after Skako Minor.
It was hard to reconcile that image of Crosshair to the one who’d left them, and that was why Echo believed Crosshair was under the influence of the chip up to Bracca. He hadn’t joined them on Kamino because he hadn’t wanted to prove they were right and he was wrong, not because he thought the Empire were correct.
At least, that was what Echo thought. The rest of them thought that Crosshair genuinely thought the Empire were right, and Echo believed that couldn’t possible be true. Crosshair may deny the truth to himself at times, but lying about an army that had him kill civilians? It didn’t fit with Crosshair.
Maybe one day Crosshair would leave the Empire, and Echo fully planned on trying to be there with his younger brother. He’d hated Hunter’s insistence on leaving Crosshair even after he knew it was the chip – it wasn’t right! They should never have left a man behind.
After Kamino – and even before it – Echo had found himself considering leaving, going to join Rex’s rebellion. Leaving Crosshair didn’t sit right with him, it never had.
Echo could still remember, even years later, the night when Echo had learned Crosshair got nightmares. He was trying to hide it, as he always did, and Echo had agreed to keep his secret. Echo had nightmares too, and he wasn’t going to mock Crosshair for them or anything like that – he'd never do such a thing to his younger brother. Yet Crosshair didn’t want his brothers to know, and Echo had never told anyone else about the nightmares. Tech, Wrecker and Hunter always assumed that the nights they shared Crosshair or Echo’s bunk were because of Echo’s nightmares, never the other way around.
Echo missed his little brother.
But to think that the man who had trusted Echo that much had just left them, and didn’t care for them – it clearly wasn’t right. He did care, the Bad Batch had been reported as dead when Crosshair knew far too well that they all were perfectly alive. Once, Hunter had tried to argue he’d said that to save his own skin – Tech and Echo had neatly shut that one down by saying why lie? The Empire wouldn’t take kindly to liars, especially a clone, and if he didn’t care, why lie.
Now, Crosshair was something they never spoke about, the memories – either good or bad – enough to upset all of them for days.
Echo regretted that. That was the real reason he left the Bad Batch.