Clone Wars and Bad Batch one-shots!

I got blown up once and survived

I know I'm sorry but this is another one about echo, a sentence that Gregor says brings back some memories for him that he would rather forget.

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"How bad?" Hunter asked Gregor who had been shot in the shoulder during the last mission. "Eh this is nothing" Gregor replied, Echo was listening to the conversation a couple feet away while pressing buttons on a control panel.

"I got blown up once and survived, I can survive this" Gregor continued, the first half of that sentence made echo look up from what he was working on and look at Gregor.

'How' Echo thought to himself 'how did he survive and could look like a normal person, why couldn't I have that' Hunter took notice of Echos uneasiness but decided now wasn't the time to talk about it.

The batch delivered Gregor to the coordinates that Rex had given them and everyone continued like nothing had happened, well almost everyone.

Echo hadn't spoken a word since Gregor admitted he got blown up and Hunter was the only one that seemed to notice at first but Tech knew something was off since Echo didn't argue back when Tech accused him on something.

Hunter was sat in the cockpit of the marauder with the whole squad, minus Echo who decided to stay in the back 'this isn't like him' Hunter through to himself. He looked over at Tech who was fiddling with the ships controls and it was almost as if he sensed Hunters stare and knew what he was going to say because he looked back and gave a nod of reassurance before Hunter stood up with a sigh and said "I should go check on Echo, he hasn't been himself since the last mission" he got a nod from everyone in the room and quickly looked over to the youngest member of the squad who had a sad look on her face before turning towards the door and pressed a button on the small console.

As Hunter stepped through the door he spotted a figure sat on a bunk with a holopad in his hand and just staring at the image, it showed four men, three in blue armour and one in yellow. Hunter recognised Cody and Rex from missions they had been on before but the other two were unfamiliar.

Hunter took a deep breath and walked to where Echo was sat and took a seat next to him "Echo, you haven't been yourself since that last mission, do you want to tell me what's wrong?" 
Echo didn't remove his eyes from the holopad before speaking "how, how did Gregor get away with it?" Hunter had a confused look in his face "get away with what vod?" Echo finally looked up with glossy eyes "he said that he got blown up once and survived, but he still looks like a normal clone, but I don't, it's just not fair"

Hunter just stared at his brother not knowing how to continue the conversation but one thing he did know was that Echo was right, Gregor could've continued in the GAR as a reg and no one would speak about him being blown up, but it was different for Echo, he couldn't go back to his brothers as he would be treated as an outcast and would likely get bullied like the batch did when they were cadets.

"I'm sorry Echo truly, but you will always have a place in this squad and we will always accept you no matter how you look" Hunter said with a sad smile as he noticed the person he was talking to is now staring down at the same holopad as earlier with the same picture on, he thought having a talk about his old brothers might cheer Echo up as he rarely spoke about his old squad.

"So" Hunter started "I know the two on the end there are Cody and Rex, but I don't think I know who the other two are, got any fun stories you want to tell?" He finished while pointing at the image.

Echos face visibly lit up as he got to talk about his brothers, he pointed to the trooper stood next to Rex and looked over to Hunter "this is Fives he was my best friend back in the war we honestly didn't go anywhere without each other, he was also behind some of the best pranks that the 501st ever had to face."

Hunter had heard of that trooper before from Rex, he was an ARC like Echo, although Hunter knew he was dead he didn't know exactly how he died and what had happened.

Hunters facial expressions changed to a comforting smile as he looked back down to the holo, there was still one trooper left to identify, "what about him, whose that?" He said pointing to a trooper with a handprint on his chest plate.

Echos face turned into a sad smile "that, that's me" he said "before my accident at the citadel, this photo was taken once me and fives had completed our ARC training and for our new armour"

Hunter just stared at the picture now that he knew it was Echo, he noticed all the similarities, although every clone has brown eyes he could tell that those in the picture belonged to Echo.

"Well then, I'm sure you have lots of stories of Fives playing pranks and I'm sure that everyone would love to hear them"

Echos favs lit up even more at the suggestion "really?" He asked unsure if what he heard was true "yes really, now come on!" Echo practically bounced his way through to the cockpit he was so excited to tell his new family stories about his old one.

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Aww happy Echo.

Please leave some suggestions for this book I'm running out of ideas haha and I would like to write about someone other than Echo but I honestly can't think of anything, I have a story that is nearly ready to be published so I'm going to try and get it out this week if possible because o need to start updating more regularly haha.

Any ways thank you for reading!!