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Gregor sighs loudly and buries his face in his mug of caf. Rex knows he’s hiding something. He knows it’s got something to do with Echo. But it’s gonna take more than some well-placed looks from Rex’s penetrating eyes to get it out of him.
He hadn’t meant to find out what was going on – Echo is allowed to get up to things without telling him (or Rex) – but Echo had positively invited him, and he wasn’t about to refuse. Missions with Echo are always entertaining – he likes Echo’s bluntness, and now that they’re close, things are pretty fun when they’ve got awhile on Echo’s ship with nothing else to do. He hasn’t told anybody about that yet, and he knows Echo hasn’t. He’s waiting for an ideally inopportune moment.
Gregor’d had no idea they were stealing a shuttle until the shuttle was stolen and Echo was shouting over its comm to take off. He’d flown the Remora plenty of times, so that wasn’t too bad, and he’d landed it pretty successfully (in his opinion) when Echo suggested they touch down on a small, forested moon. In a clearing between the towering trees, he and Echo exchanged a long look and Gregor got the gist of what was going on – the Bad Batch, their kid, the shuttle, a rescue mission, etc, etc.
“Will you take the Remora back?” Echo’s voice had been thick, he was trying to keep it steady.
Gregor had let his face break into a grin, though it didn’t quite feel right, “Sure!” The dry grass between them made a sound like raindrops hitting the outer walls on Kamino. “Look, Echo, good luck with whatever you’re up to. I’ve got a feeling you’re gonna need it.”
Echo had watched him quietly for a moment, and Gregor hadn’t wanted to leave it like that, so he’d waded through the long grass and kissed Echo and Echo’d kissed him back, pulling him into an embrace, and Gregor had gotten scared for the first time that maybe Echo wouldn’t come back, but also, the kiss, which made it difficult to think straight (ha), and what would he do if Echo didn’t come back? The awful thing: he’d go on with life as usual (or as usual as it could get for a clone whose sole purpose had been replaced by a self-imposed duty to fight the very forces he’d worked to put in power. It was hella complicated, alright?).
He’d pulled away from Echo reluctantly, saluted him as Echo climbed back onto the dinged-up shuttle, his face tight. The ship streaked away into the sky, disappearing into the blue of space as if it had never even been there.
Feeling oddly lonely, Gregor had flown Echo’s ship back by himself.
* * *
Gregor takes an unnecessarily loud sip of caf, trying to drown Rex’s stare out. I have nothing to tell, I’ve got absolutely kriffing nothing to tell you, Rex!
Rex doesn’t seem to get the message. “Gregor, where is Echo?”
“Echo? Hmm?” Innocence is always a good play.
“You left with Echo, you came back with the Remora, and now you’re acting strange. What’s going on?”
“I’m always strange! It’s one of my better qualities…”
“Gregor!”
“I’m not supposed to tell you.”
“And why not?”
“Because! It’s none of your business, Rex! Echo doesn’t have to tell you everything.”
Rex is quiet for too long.
“Rex?”
He lets out a long, long sigh. “Look, I know exactly what they’re doing, and I don’t like it, but what can I do? I know how much Omega means to them, and the closeness between them, well it’s not something anybody’s ever understood about us, is it? The lengths you can go to protect one of your own – what I’m saying, Gregor, is I understand why. I just wish they’d told me…”
Gregor pauses mid-sip, “I think you know why they didn’t, Rex.”
Rex nods sadly, “I do.” Nobody says anything for a while. Gregor can’t take all that silence.
“Reeex! They’re tough, they can handle it!”
“Oof, I know, and that doesn’t make me feel any better! I still get the feeling they won’t all come back…”
Gregor really, really doesn’t want to think about that. “Well, there’s nothing you can do, is there? We’ve just gotta wait for them now!”
Rex glances across at Gregor, “Is there any more of that caf?”
Now they’ll both be up all night…