Hunted|The Bad Batch.

sixteen: forgiveness.

Yelena stood outside the Marauder in silence, her arms crossed as she looked out at the horizon of wrecked ships. While she stayed silent and had not spoken with Hunter after what happened, he had come inside and told everyone they were heading back to the Marauder to get some rest and that in the morning they would scavenge around and see if they could find anything to help with their debt to Cid. So, the group headed back to the Marauder, all of them quickly noticing the lack of words between Hunter and Yelena and their tense postures with each other. Tech and Echo had shared a concerned look and frown at what was possibly going on between the two while Wrecker and Omega just frowned, both wanting to ask what was going on but Echo had stopped them. She couldn't sleep though, everyone else was asleep and Yelena found herself outside standing in the cool air. "Yelena?" the familiar voice of Echo spoke up from behind, the woman slowly looked back to see nothing but concern and worry written all over his face. He came to a slow stop and looked at her face, studying her eyes and he could see it. She was hurt. "What's wrong?" He asked her, concern written all over his when he walked over to his friend. "Is it...about what happened with Hunter? I can tell something happened." Echo hesitantly says and Yelena quietly shakes her head.

"No..." Her word is almost a whisper and Echo frowns. "Echo, they're dead." She suddenly says and his eyebrows furrow in confusion, who was dead?

"I-I don't understand, Yelena. Who's dead?" Echo frowned, Yelena swallowed hard and licked her lips.

"Padme and Anakin," Yelena revealed and Echo went silent in shock, letting the words wash all over him. Only one person he could think of that knew this, Contessina. She must've told Yelena, Cut and Suu told them she had been with Jyn as well. But...he just couldn't believe it. "They're dead, Padme died giving birth, Palpatine killed her and Anakin...he's dead." She sucked in a sharp breath, rubbing her arm and Echo could see clearly. She wanted to cry.

"Yelena...you can cry." Echo tells her softly, reaching out a hand and putting it on her shoulder.

"So can you." Yelena replies and Echo frowns confused. "Not about Padme and Anakin, but there are other things." She says and he can hear her voice break, she was going to cry. "Echo...we're not okay. Neither of us. I can't speak for Hunter, Tech, or Wrecker, but...I know Rex said something to you. Contessina said something to me. They're dealing with it too, but we're not." Yelena looks at her friend and Echo can see the tears in her eyes, her words beginning to settle for him. She was right, Rex and Contessina were right.

"Everything is just...hard," Echo admitted with a breath after a moment of hesitation. "Getting up every day is hard, sleeping is...hard, I can't sleep. I have...nightmares and the more I go on, the more I hear worse things. It's just..." He trails off with a deep sigh, running a hand down his face and taking a deep breath. "We've lost so much...Fives, Hardcase, Hevy, Tup, Jesse, Kix, Anakin..." Echo lists off, Yelena feeling his despair grow with every name mentioned and her heart drops.

"I miss them," Yelena whispers with a cracked voice, blinking as tears roll down her cheeks. "All of them and I wish they were here so bad." She admits and Echo nods.

"Me too. I'd do anything to have them here with us." Echo utters, reaching forward and wrapping his arms around his friend. Echo allows her to cry into his shoulder and he lets tears fall from his own eyes, both friends just needed each other and needed to let their emotions go. So much had happened and with the appearance of Contessina and Rex, a lot of realization occurred.

"But we're here...and they'd want us to keep taking a step each day," Yelena says, pulling back from the hug and looking up at her friend. "We know that, they need us to keep waking up each day, Echo." She tells him quietly, the man closes his eyes for a moment and nods quietly. He didn't tell anyone, she never told anyone. They weren't okay, but at least they were talking to each other about it. The problem was they had gotten too good at hiding things, but not from each other. Echo was her best friend, she was his, they'd know each other since before he'd left Kamino and joined the 501st.