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The war was over, thanks to Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard, who had assassinated Chancellor Palpatine when the latter revealed himself to be the Sith Lord the Jedi had been searching for since the beginning of the war. A few well-placed blaster shots when the old man least expected it, and the war was over.
Coruscant had been in turmoil following these declarations and all that they implied, but things were beginning to calm down, and Bail Organa had been appointed Acting Chancellor pending new elections. Under his leadership, several decrees aiding postwar reconstruction were adopted. Among them was the decree establishing clones as sentient beings. All were now considered citizens of the Republic, and no longer its property. The GAR had been dissolved, and each clone was free to choose their own path. Many clones chose to remain affiliated with the Jedi, joining the various corps and participating in the postwar effort, helping to rebuild the populations and worlds affected by the war; but others had completely broken away from the Order, living their new lives as they saw fit.
Since the end of the war a few months ago, the Bad Batch has been carrying out various missions to help with the post-war reconstruction effort while also taking the time to explore the galaxy.
Today had started like any other day for Echo. He and the Bad Batch had returned to Coruscant at the end of their last mission, which had gone very well.
So far, nothing abnormal or unusual.
What was unusual was that Rex was waiting for him in the hangar. And then he borrowed him from the Batch and took him to the Jedi Temple saying that someone wanted to see him.
And it turns out that this someone was none other than Fives.
Fives, his twin, whom Echo believed to have been dead for over two years.
Fives, who apparently thought Echo was also dead.
Echo was completely lost. Fives had been shot, Rex had told him. Rex was there. Fives had died in Rex's arms, so how could Fives be here? At the Jedi Temple, very much alive, holding Echo tightly as if the cyborg would vanish if he let go for a moment?
Echo was not opposed to the program in itself, given that his grip on Fives was just as firm, but his mind was racing trying to make sense of the situation.
Nothing made sense. Nothing made sense except Fives in his arms and Rex around them, clutching his little brothers, his Domino twins, tightly against him. He too had thought he'd lost them, and now they were reunited, finally.
Without Echo really knowing how it had happened, he found himself on the sofa in Fives' apartment, his brother still in his arms.
Rex must have slipped away at some point since he was no longer with them, but Echo didn't know when it had happened either.
Echo had finally managed to convince himself that Fives was really there, alive, in his arms, so now he had a thousand questions. “Fives?” He called softly, running his hand through his brother's hair.
“Hm? If your next words are to suggest I move from here, my answer is no. I thought I'd lost you forever, Echo… I- I never want to let you go again.”
Echo stifled a wet laugh before continuing. “I don’t want us to separate either.” He quickly assured. “It’s just… I don’t understand, Fives, I thought you were dead…”
"And I thought you were dead." Fives retorted.
"How did you survive a blaster shot to the chest?" Echo asked.
“And how did you survive such an explosion?”
"I asked the question first!" Echo exclaimed indignantly.
"And you ‘died’ before me, so you have to answer first!" Fives replied, finally raising his head to send a playful smile to his brother, even though Echo could see all his pain and sorrow behind this laughing facade.
Echo sighed and didn't reply right away.
Fives shifted slightly, straightening up to look at his brother. He grasped Echo's left hand in his own, and only then did he seem to realize Echo was missing his right hand. Fives examined his brother more closely and realized Echo appeared to be in very bad shape. He obviously couldn't see everything through his brother's clothes, but the shape of his legs was too strange to be anything but bionic. His skin was very pale, in a sickly manner, and he was too thin.
"By the Force, what happened to you, Eyayah?" Fives murmured, devastated.
Just hearing that nickname, which no one but Fives ever used to call him, was almost enough to make Echo cry again, but he managed to hold it back. The tears had had their moment; now it was time for explanations. And Fives seemed determined to hear Echo's before sharing his own.
"A lot of really shitty stuff." Echo scoffed sadly.
"Tell me everything. I want to know everything." Fives insisted.
Then Echo told him everything. How he had survived the explosion of the Citadel. How he had been picked up by the Separatists and barely kept alive. How he had been sold to the Techno Union. How he had been tortured for information about Republic strategies. How he had resisted. How he had held on. How he hadn't given up until Wat Tambor found a way to literally hack his brain. How he had tried to keep resisting. How, when Echo had lost all hope of ever escaping that hellhole, Rex and the Bad Batch had arrived to rescue him. How he had helped the Republic win the Battle of Anaxes. How he had joined the Bad Batch after the rather negative reaction from some vode. How he had continued to participate in the war effort alongside the Bad Batch.
Throughout his story, Echo did not try to hide how much his life had changed, but he also did not dwell too long on all the new challenges he had to face with this new, deeply wounded, changed, and faulty body.
Fives wanted to ask. He wanted to ask how far his right arm was bionic. He wanted to ask if any part of his legs was still flesh. He wanted to ask about the hard metal he'd felt on his brother's chest, through his clothes. He wanted to know everything about that internal computer, and he wanted to ask what the helmet-like thing Echo wore was for.
But it wasn't the right time. Echo had already shared a lot, and Fives didn't want to overwhelm him. Besides, the war was over; they had all the time in the world to discuss everything.
"I'm sorry, Echo." Fives said softly, rather than asking him questions.
Echo frowned. “Sorry for what?”
He really hoped Fives wasn't going to come out with some stupid line like "sorry I didn't come looking for you sooner" or something like that. Rex already felt bad enough about it, even though Echo had told him more times than he could count that none of it was his fault, that he had no way of knowing Echo was still alive, and no reason to believe Echo had survived the explosion on Lola Sayu.
But once again, Fives surprised him.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you get through this hell.” Fives apologized. “Even if you only hint at it and I don’t know everything, I can see how difficult all of this has been, and still is, for you. So I’m sorry I wasn’t there sooner, little brother.”
“You were dead, Fives, there was nothing you could have done. I missed you terribly, and every night, when I was saying my remembrances, I said your name, I thought of you, and I wished you were here with me, of course. But I never blamed you. For anything. Even before I learned how you died, I knew you would never have left without a good reason. I knew you fought to the very end, and that's all I could ask of you. So don't apologize for leaving me behind; I knew you didn't mean to.”
"I missed you too, Eyayah." Fives whispered, his voice breaking. "And I, too, honored you in my remembrances."
“I know.” Echo smiled gently. “And even though I missed you a lot, I assure you I wasn’t alone. Rex was there, of course, as were Jesse and Kix, and let’s not forget Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Crosshair. Joining the Bad Batch really helped me get back on my feet.”
“Are they cool?” Fives asked with a tentative smile.
“More than cool. I'm really looking forward to introducing you.” Echo confirmed, visibly excited.
“If they are as good as you say, I would like to meet them too.”
Echo nodded and they remained silent for a short while before he continued. “Fives… You were dead. What happened to you? How… Why?”
Fives sighed. He didn't like talking about it, but Echo had just told him everything that had happened to him. The least Fives could do was do the same. He started with “Did Rex tell you how I died?”
“Blaster shot to the chest. Fired by Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard because you tried to assassinate the Chancellor. Which was stupid, by the way. Even if he turned out to be the Sith, you don't go alone against someone of his stature.”
Fives grimaced. “I admit it wasn't my brightest idea. But in my defense, I was really drugged up and I had just discovered that we all have a chip in our heads that can turn us into robots at any moment, and that the one who controls these chips is the same person who has been leading both sides of the war from the beginning, namely the Sith Lord, Chancellor Palpatine.”
“Let’s just say that since you survived, I’ll forgive your lapse in judgment. But how did you survive? Rex… You died in his arms; he wouldn’t have left you for dead. Unless he knew from the start that you were alive and lied to me the whole time.” Echo added, hurt and betrayed.
"No!" Fives quickly corrected. "No, Rex didn't know. He only found out I survived like, a week ago. It wasn't safe before then."
“Why didn't he tell me before? Why wait?”
“I… I honestly don't know. I didn't even know you were alive, Ey'ika. If I had known, I would have found a way to tell you something as soon as possible.”
Echo frowned, not really satisfied with the question. “Well, I'll have to talk to Rex about that. But that doesn't answer my question. How on the Force did you survive a blaster shot to the chest? And don't tell me Fox, Commander Fox, missed his shot."
“Fox didn’t miss.” Fives confirmed. “But he had his doubts about the Chancellor even before I discovered the truth about the chips. So when I showed up saying exactly that, he suspected I’d uncovered something big and important. So he made me disappear so he could interrogate me. He did shoot me, and it did look like a standard blaster, but it was actually a modified weapon. I don’t remember all the details, but instead of killing me, the shot injected me with a synthetic substance that temporarily stopped my heart, and instead of dying, I fell into a kind of deep coma. I really felt like I was dying, though, and I remember those last moments in Rex’s arms…”
Echo grimaced, imagining what Rex must have felt. But Fives hadn't finished his story, so he refocused. He could think about their big brother of a Captain later.
“When I woke up several weeks later, it took me a while to understand and accept that I wasn’t dead.”
"Several weeks?" Echo exclaimed. "That's a hell of a drug if it puts you in a near-death state for several weeks."
"Actually, Fox's shot was only supposed to knock me out for a few hours, two days at most. But when the Corries developed this stuff, they hadn't considered the effects it could have if combined with other drugs. And Fox couldn't have known what the Kaminoans had injected me with either. Let's just say the drug mix didn't have the best effect on me, and my heart wasn't a big fan. To put it simply, I almost died because my heart wouldn't restart. And when it did restart, it would last an hour at most before stopping again. For a few days, no one was really sure they'd be able to stabilize me."
“But they did? I mean, you seem to have a heart that's working pretty well right now, so they must have managed to do something.”
"Oh yes, they finally put a battery in my chest that tells my heart when to beat because this idiot is too lazy to do it himself." Fives announced, deliberately using a light tone to try and defuse the situation.
“So you have a pacemaker?” Echo asked to be sure.
“Something like that, yeah. It works pretty well, but the medics made it very clear that my heart remained weak and that I shouldn't push myself too hard if I didn't want it to stop for good.”
Clearly, from the way Fives spoke, Echo could see that it weighed heavily on him. And rather than feeling sorry for his brother, Echo chose to lighten the mood with a bit of humor. "At least only your heart needs instructions to do your job." He said with a slight smile.
Fives raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“My own lungs can no longer breathe on their own. My heart does the Macarena if it's left unattended. My stomach has decided that working part-time is enough. My intestines are also intermittently on strike, and my rectum and bladder have resigned and don't plan on coming back.”
Echo had said all this in a joking tone, hoping to lighten the mood, but when he saw Fives' face fall and his twin turn even paler, he thought it wasn't such a good idea after all. "Hey, hey, I'm fine." He tried.
Fives was horrified. “You just gave me a horrifying list of everything that proves you're not fine!”
"When you put it like that, it sounds very impressive and quite alarming, but I promise you I'm okay. It was complicated at first, but I'm used to it now, and I'm much better than when the guys picked me up in Skako Minor. I assure you that, despite the fact that I'm proportionally more metal than flesh, I'm doing as well as can be." Echo assured him with a reassuring smile.
Fives didn't reply, and clearly, he wasn't convinced. So Echo opened his arms and pulled Fives close again. Fives didn't resist at all and snuggled into his brother's arms, trying to reassure himself that he was as well as he said he was.
"I'm okay." Echo repeated again. "I'm fine, and you're fine. We're fine, and we're together again. The war is over, the Republic is free, and we finally have rights. Everything is good. It’s going to be okay. We’re going to be okay, I promise."
Fives did not respond, content to absorb his sibling’s comfort.
The two twins remained like that, in each other's arms for quite some time before knocks on the door disturbed them. "My brother has returned from the dead, I'm busy!" Fives replied, loud enough to be heard from the other side of the door, without moving an inch from Echo.
Echo shook his head, amused.
"I'm the one who brought your brother back to you, Fives, I know exactly what you're doing." Rex replied from the other side of the door.
Fives sighed deeply but sat up a little, still remaining seated next to Echo, keeping his hand in his.
"Come in, Rex." Echo called.
The door opened and their older brother quickly entered the apartment, closing the door behind him, smiling gently as he saw Echo and Fives practically in each other's arms. "Are you both alright?" He asked.
He knew it would be a shock for both of them to see each other again when they both believed the other had been dead for a long time, but he also knew it would do them good.
“We're fine.” Echo confirmed. “But I actually have a few questions for you.”
“I suspected as much and would be happy to answer, but before that, I wanted to know if you were ready for another surprise.”
"Rex, I just learned that my favorite person in the entire galaxy is not dead at all and is in relatively good health." Fives explained with a broad smile. "You can surprise me any way you like."
Rex nodded and looked at Echo for his answer before doing anything.
"You know that with the Bad Batch, I'm always ready for anything. Even learning that a blaster shot to the chest wasn't enough to get rid of my beloved twin. Bring it on."
Rex ignored Fives' indignant "Hey!" and went back to the door, opening it again. "You guys can cam in now.”
Neither Echo nor Fives had time to ask any questions before three men, three clones, entered the apartment, with Rex bringing up the rear.
The first vod had large scars across his face, including one clearly blind eye, he had a blue cane and from the way he stood it was clear that at least part of his right leg was artificial.
The second man seemed mostly unharmed, except for his right arm that hung limply at his side, seemingly without any control.
The last clone was in a wheelchair, burn scars adorned the right side of his face and neck, and his right arm was missing.
But all of that was just details because, as impossible as the situation might have seemed, Echo and Fives recognized these three vode almost immediately.
Echo was frozen in place, so Fives took charge of the checks.
"Cutup?" He asked, looking at the one with the scars and the cane.
Cutup, since it was indeed him, responded with a dazzling smile that stretched over his scars.
“DB?” Fives continued, addressing the one with the dangling arm.
"Hi Fives." DB replied with a shy smile and a small gesture of his left hand.
"Hevy?" He finished, lowering his eyes slightly to meet the gaze of the seated clone.
"Hey, little brother." Hevy confirmed, with a reassuring yet sad expression.
“What? How is that possible? You are-”
“Dead?” DB suggested.
“Yes!”
"Oh, you know, death is overrated." Cutup Shrugged. "Look at you, you weren't dead for very long either.”
Fives opened his mouth to reply with something when a small whimper beside him attracted the attention of all the men present.
Echo was still frozen in place, but silent tears were streaming down his cheeks. His eyes darted quickly back and forth between the three newcomers, Fives and Rex.
"Hey, Echo…" Fives began, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder.
Echo flinched and recoiled abruptly, his eyes wide and panicked.
Not really understanding his brother's reaction but recognizing his panicked look, Fives did not try to touch him again but frowned. “Echo…” He said softly, at lost about what to do.
He received only another flinch in response, and as Fives searched for what to say, Rex stepped forward and placed a reassuring hand on Fives' shoulder before walking around him and standing in front of Echo, blocking the rest of his room and its occupants from his view. "Echo, look at me." Rex ordered, using his Captain's voice.
Echo's wide, still panicked eyes came to rest somewhere on Rex's forehead, Echo unable to look his older brother in the eyes at that moment. Rex would be content with that.
"Talk to me." The blond man then asked.
"Am I dreaming?" Echo whispered, sounding terrified and hopeful at the same time.
"You're not dreaming." Rex assured. "It's all real. They're all real, and alive."
"But how?" Echo whimpered. "They were dead—I was the last one, and then… How?"
"It would seem that death doesn't have much success with the Dominoes." Rex replied with a small, proud smile.
Echo remained focused on Rex for a moment before taking as deep a breath as he physically could and finally turning his head to face the other four men.
He moved on from Fives fairly quickly, given that he had had enough time to convince himself that his twin was real and had survived.
Hevy, Cutup, and DB hadn't moved from their spots and seemed to be waiting patiently, yet anxiously, for Echo to decide whether they were real or not. All three of them, along with Fives, desperately wanted to convince their brother that they were really there, really alive, but they knew Echo. They knew he needed time to reach his own conclusions.
Echo first stopped on Cutup. "You were eaten by a giant eel." He pointed.
Cutup shrugged. "She didn't really chew. And I wasn't good enough for her, so she ended up spitting me out. She kept my leg to use as a toothpick, though." He added with a chuckle, pointing to his right leg.
Echo made something that looked as much like a grimace as a smile before switching to DB.
“You got shot.”
"Fives too." DB retorted. "The shot wrecked my shoulder and knocked me out. The clankers thought I was dead and put me with the others."
This time, Echo grimaced completely but didn't dwell on it too much and concentrated on Hevy, who was patiently waiting his turn. “You got blown up. How the kriff did you survive an explosion like that?”
Fives stifled a snicker and Rex concealed a laugh with a forced cough, but they didn't need to say anything; Hevy took care of it. "Do you really want to talk about how to survive explosions like that?" Hevy asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because I don't think you're in a position to lecture me on that, Ey’ika."
Echo grimaced again, but he had to admit that his brother had a point.
Echo looked again at each of his brothers who had returned from the dead. "Are you all really here?" He asked, seeming not to believe it but full of hope.
"We're really here, Echo." Cutup assured. "Sorry for leaving you alone for so long, but we're here.”
"And that goes for you too, Fives." Hevy continued. "For a while, you too thought you were the last Domino. I'm sorry you had to endure that alone for so long. And I know you weren't truly alone and that you found other brothers within your battalion, but it's not the same."
“No.” Fives confirmed. “It’s not the same thing. I love my brothers in the 501st, that’s not the point. But they’re not the idiots I grew up with and left Kamino with.” He finished, half-throwing himself into Hevy’s arms.
Hevy obviously caught his little brother against him, even though the position was strange.
Echo, Cutup and DB soon joined them and in a short time, the 5 Dominos were in a pile, one in each other's arms.
"Wait, this isn't really a comfortable position." Hevy said after a few dozen seconds.
"Don't care." The other four replied in unison.
Hevy let out a burst of laughter before continuing. “If you can manage to unstick yourself for 30 seconds, I can transfer to the sofa and we can pick up where we left off. Fives' sofa is big enough for the five of us.”
Although it was reluctantly and with grumbling, the four youngest could not refute their older brother's logic and sat up one by one.
Hevy then moved closer to the sofa, stopping his wheelchair right next to it and began to wiggle on the seat to get closer to the edge of the chair.
"Can I carry you to put you on the sofa?" Fives asked, wanting to help his brother.
But before Hevy could even open his mouth, Rex intervened.
"No." The Captain immediately opposed in a stern voice. "The only one here who is potentially capable of carrying anyone is me."
The Dominos clearly disagreed and it showed in their faces, so Rex sighed and looked each one in the eyes.
“Cutup, your right leg isn't stable enough for you to carry the weight of an adult clone. DB, you only have one functional arm. Fives, you're forbidden from lifting heavy loads if you don't want to risk cardiac arrest. And Echo, a combination of the three previous reasons. So I repeat, the only one here who could carry anyone is me, the one who still has two arms, two legs, and a healthy heart.”
"Okay, fine, no need to show off." Fives mumbled.
Rex chose to ignore him.
“So Hevy, if you need help transferring, I'll gladly help you, but there's no way one of these idiots is going to get hurt or put themselves in danger for this.”
"I like you, Captain." Was all Hevy said, having initially opened his mouth to lecture Fives in much the same way. "And I'd appreciate a hand, thanks. Technically, I know how to do it alone, but I don't want to mess up and end up on the ground; that would panic more than a few people." He added, giving his younger brothers a sly smile.
DB leaned towards Echo to whisper something to his in a very indiscreet manner. “You have no idea how scary it is to just see him collapse on the ground like that.”
"I can imagine." Echo grimaced.
Rex paid no attention to the discussion between the two younger ones and moved closer to Hevy, following his instructions to help him transfer onto Fives' sofa.
And as soon as Hevy was settled, he was invaded again by his brothers, with Echo coming to snuggle to his left, seeming to want to curl up against him but hesitating.
"Come here, Eyayah." Hevy called, putting his left arm around Echo's shoulders.
“I'm not comfortable.” Echo shook his head, biting his lower lip. “I've got metal sticking out everywhere.”
"And it's all of you, including the bits of metal, that I want to hug." Hevy replied immediately. "Come here."
Echo didn't need much prompting and came to rest his head against Hevy's shoulder, gradually relaxing and slumping against his brother as he did so.
The other 3 soon joined them, Fives settling on the other side of Echo and Cutup on the other side of Fives, DB coming to position himself on Hevy’s other side.
All five of them wriggled around for a little while to find a comfortable position and finally settled down in a cuddle pile.
Rex, observing the whole scene, couldn't help but smile softly and proudly. He was also relieved to know that these incredible men had finally been reunited with their families.
"And there you have it, a complete set of Dominoes." He said quietly.
The 5 brothers gave him a smile and Rex couldn't resist the urge to take a holo.
"Rex..." Echo complained, rolling his eyes.
"Can you send it to me?" Cutup asked without wasting any time.
Rex nodded and tapped his comm for a few seconds, sending the photo to the five brothers in front of him. Several comms rang simultaneously, but none of the men moved from their seats to look.
“Well then, gentlemen, I'll leave you to your own devices. Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything; I'll be around for the rest of the day.”
"Thank you, ori'vod." Echo sincerely thanked, feeling happier and more at peace than he had in a long time. "Thank you for giving me back my brothers."
"The pleasure is all mine, vod'ika." Rex assured them before leaving the Dominos to their own devices.
Each of these five men had experienced unimaginable horrors and had suffered greatly from the loss of their brothers; he was happy and relieved to know they were reunited. As he had said, they were now a complete set of dominoes, and no longer just a few stray pieces.