The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

Twin Week Day Four

Disclaimer: There is no emotion, there is junk. =)

PS. This is Clone Twin Week Day 4. 

~ Rivana Rita

Echo finds himself being pursued by a mysterious shadow assassin who he feels a strange linkage to. What he doesn't expect when they capture him is to see Echo's long lost twin brother, Fives.

"I'll go after him," Echo offers shortly, taking off after the black-armored assassin. He's been tracking them for a while across Coruscant. He's a sniper, and not near Crosshair's level, but good. Deadly. Dangerous.

He climbs the next level, circling around while the rest of his squad – minus Omega, naturally. They left her hopefully safely with Senator Chuchi at the Senate – draws fire. Crosshair could easily take him out, but they want to get this person alive.

Something's familiar about him. Echo knows it, and it's unsettling. He doesn't like it. Something's tingling in his mind that he hasn't felt in a very long time.

Crosshair shoots the rifle right before Echo tackles the assassin. He rolls over, grunting, trying to shove him off. Echo's not the greatest at hand-to-hand combat, but he is stronger than the average reg, thanks to the Techno Union.

That's one thing they gave him and he's perfectly ready to use it against them in every way he can. They made him into this, and he'll always use it to his benefit.

Echo flips the operative off, drawing his blaster and fires a stunbolt at him that smacks him square in the chest.

He drops, the shock running through him, and doesn't move again.

His heart flutters, skipping a beat and something familiar worms its way into his mind.

Echo holsters his blaster, frowning, and touches the visor controls on the side of the assassin's helmet. It snaps up, revealing a clone – something they already knew from the previous one Rex saw, though the second was frankly out of nowhere and seems far more resourceful – but not just any clone.

The five tattoo on his forehead stands out very, very well.

Echo jerks back, a quiet, genuinely panicked sound slipping free of his throat. It seems impossible. Should be impossible, should –

Fives .

Fives was gone. He was. Rex had said he died, and Anakin had said he was gone. Anakin had mourned him. So had Rex. Echo hasn't been able to stop . The five ingrained onto his wrist from birth has been a haunting reminder of who he lost. Of his twin brother. Of Fives .

The mark never faded. It should have. Echo could never figure it out.

Soulmate marks are supposed to fade after one of them dies. His never had.

They spent a life together. A life apart. All Echo's ever wanted was to be beside him again. He wanted to make up for so many of the fights they had. For – they fought so much.

Echo never reached the same sense of calm acceptance with Fives that Hunter has with Crosshair, or that Tech and Wrecker sometimes share. Sometimes.

But Fives – Fives is in front of him, and Echo's mind is swimming and spinning.

Fives . He can't breathe. There's air but he can't inhale or exhale or breathe – he's gasping like a fish out of water, and it's highly unflattery.

Fives. Fives .

"Echo?" Hunter's voice is over the comm. "Echo! Come in."

"Affirmative," he answers, voice shaky and dull. He's not supposed to lose focus, but all he can do is stare at Fives' unconscious face.