Disclaimer: The Clone Wars/The bad batch (c) Disney/Lucas arts/Gorge Lucas/Dave Filoni
A/N: there is discourse about where, how or even if Echo sleeps. Some people noticed there was a hammock in the Bad Batch living quarters at Kamino – that might belong to Echo. I rolled with it...
Echoes in the night
"There's a face you might remember
Though [her] name you won't recall
(...)
Now the fantasy has faded
Just an echo in the night"
-Echoes in the night by Gary Brooker
Echo was talking in his sleep.
He called his fallen brothers - Names, nicknames, numbers. Sometimes he would relay orders given to him months before his capture or repeat his own CT number through the whole night, as if he was still trapped in a Techno Union facility.
The Bad Batch seemed to be used to it by now.
Omega didn't.
She approached Echo plenty of times, shaking him awake. Hoping that once woken up, he'd stop. Sometimes he did, sometimes... it would make things worse.
Sometimes, in his sleep, he'd moan, scream even, clutching the limbs he no longer had.
The Bad Batch was used to it... but not Omega.
She was about to sneak to Echo's hammock again. Just to slightly shake him, not to full awareness, but just enough to make him stop talking, stop the pained moans, stop the calls.
Just stop.
She scurried back to her cot, seeing Crosshair emerge from the kitchen area with a midnight snack.
Every since they retrieved him from the Empire's forces she avoided the sniper like a plague even though he was less abrasive after rejoining this squad. Sometimes Omega wondered if it was due to removal of his chip or realization of atrocities he committed under the Empire's influence.
There was one thing, though, that didn't change - the sniper had always been perceptive. Standing behind everybody, watching them closely. He rarely engaged in any shenanigans they had, but he was always there in the background. Omega could see the gears in his mind turning, manifested by a movement of the toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other.
The clone trooper looked at his sleeping brother. Silently chewing the sandwich, watching closely as Echo's fingers twitched, his pale face contorted with pain.
After a while, Crosshair placed a half-eaten sandwich on the nearby table and pushed Echo's hammock, ever so slightly. It rocked back and forth.
It didn't help much.
The sniper squatted next to his squad mate. He cleared his throat.
"Echo" Omaga's eyes widened, surprised upon hearing the sniper's hushed voice. "Echo, hang in there" Crosshair didn't sound like himself. "the evac in on the way" his voice was clear, devoided of his usual sly sarcasm.
He sounded just like a reg.
"Jesse? Kix?" Echo asked half-asleep "Fives?"
Crosshair didn't respond to any of the names, likely not to feed too much into this brother's hazy half-dream. He allowed Echo's brain to fill in the gaps.
"You're gonna be fine, brother," the sniper put his hand on Echo's shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze then pushing him to make the hammock rock slightly more "we're going home."
After that Echo took another ragged breath, finally calming down and falling back asleep.
The sniper stood up, watching ARC's curled up frame. After a while of perfect stillness, he fixed the blanket draping it tightly over Echo's shoulders.
"you're not helping" the lean trooper finally said in a hushed tone, his voice getting back to normal. "Your comfort is not end-all-be-all, girl"
He knew she wasn't asleep.
"I didn't-" Omega cowered.
"They have spoiled you rotten"
"I-"
"Go back to sleep"
Omega took a last glimpse of the sniper's face, barely visible in the dim, night-cycle lights of the ship, she noticed the furrowed brows and worried eyes, just as he sat down by the table to finish his food. The man was glancing from time to time toward his sleeping squad mate.
Then the female clone realized... The Bad Batch wasn't used to their brother's pain at all.
They didn't know how to help.