#also all for one should have stayed dead after kamino

[harukamitsuki]

Ugghh been consuming some bnha stuff and I'm reminded of why I largely prefer fanfiction over the actual story. I have so much hate and pettiness within me. Even so, I am never going to change my mind on how much I hate how bnha is just an amalgamation of wasted potention. Search the definition of wasted potential up and there's just an image of bnha.

I remember watching it as the first season was coming about because it was made by Bones and I just have to watch it in that case. I watched episode one and was so excited.

We have our mc, Midoriya Izuku, being powerless in a world full of quirks.

His childhood friend turned bully, Bakugou Katsuki, is shown to be favoured by literally everyone and this feeds into his ego.

All Might, the number one hero, is jaded and powerless for 21 hours of the day because of a fight nobody knew existed. Izuku is attacked and helpless, but saved by All Might. All Might tells him he can't become a hero. A much needed reality check because Izuku didn't work out a single bit before then and it's so incredibly hard to fight someone who has something you lack.

Then Bakugou is attacked and helpless. Bakugou, who is so much stronger and who people love, is left useless, only able to make the situation worse with his explosions creating a fire hazard. The pro-heroes can't do anything. All Might and Izuku both hate themselves for the part they played and how useless they are. Then Izuku sees how scared Bakugou is. He runs in, inspiring All Might as he mocks himself for breaking Izuku's dream yet forgetting the core of heroism.

Then, after all is said and done, All Might goes back to Izuku. And he tells him he can become a hero.

...

Then he offers him One for All. Now, when I was watching this for the first time, I was so disappointed. You set up a powerless mc in a world full of powers and you just give him the power of the strongest hero? Great. But, I kept watching.

I watched Izuku work to get his power, struggle even after getting a quirk. I watched as Izuku finally stood up for himself and win against Bakugou. I watched as the series went on and I... I started noticing more and more missed opportunities.

See, bnha is supposed to be a zero to hero story. It's supposed to be about the mc going from powerless to powerful. But it does it so quickly. Suddenly, it's not about Izuku finding his own form of strength, or realising how being quirkless may not give any advantages but it also has no disadvantages, or even any commentary on quirk discrimination or fantastic racism or anything.

It turns into a story about controlling your power. It's not what I signed up for.

That's just one missed potential. There's so many more. Horikoshi clearly tries to make some commentary on quirk discrimination and female heroes/sexism in the workplace and entertainment over peace. There's some effort put into making a comment on how heroes are glorified and people don't see them as public workers, they see them as celebreties.

But it's never delved into. We don't see how bad people with mutant or 'villainous' quirks are treated, and we don't see how people with weak quirks are treated, or how the quirkless are treated (because the only reason Izuku was treated so horribly was because of Bakugou). We don't see how female heroes need to have a bit of allure in their personas to have any sort of support.

Yuuei is literally a camp for making child soldiers, yet there's no controversy over it? There's no such things as heroes having to take lethal action and no moral dilemmas over it? There's nobody speaking out about how Midnight flirts with students?

We have literally no information about how heroes work. We don't know how their salaries are decided, how they're ranked, how undergound heroes work. if twilight heroes are a thing, how anybody but Rock Lock feels about bringing children into adult matters, (seriously, why do people hate Rock Lock for being rightfully worried about having 15 year olds in a raid against the yakuza), we don't know how villains work and how to decide if one's a criminal or a villain.

Heck, the only laws we know of are fanon, and the canon stupid idea that you can't use your quirk in self-defense.

It's just. Incredibly infuriating.

Also, analysis as a whole is so under-utilised. Both Izuku and Shigaraki are deemed creepy for their analysis, which is such a useful tool. I mean, Izuku accurately guesses Stain's quirk, which is useful because, otherwise, they wouldn't be wary about Stain licking their blood or cutting them. Shigaraki accurately guesses the time intervals between Aizawa's blinks, which helps him a shit ton.

But is it ever used outside of these situations? No. The thing is, quirks are scientific in nature, not magic. Therefore, they're not restricted like magic is. Fire doesn't always have to be fire, it can be smoke or just heat. Ice can be water or steam. Acid can melt through anything or just be used as a mario kart banana peel.

There was so much missed potential and that's exactly why there's so much fan content.

Horikoshi leaves so much out, and everything he misses tends to be the interesting parts. He willfully explains Bakugou's quirk in detail, but everyone else? Nah. Fuck them.

I mean, let's look at Ochako's quirk.

Gravity negation. Or is it? See, if it were just gravity negation, then two things, in particular, would happen. First of all, Izuku would have fucking died when she saved him from falling. Second of all, she would not have been able to get infinity in the ball throw.

Negating gravity does not negate the forces. Therefore, when she saved Izuku from falling, he would have still been affected by the force of his fall. It would have been no different from hitting the concrete. Additionally, when she threw the ball, it kept going. Air drag would have made it so that she couldn't possibly get an infinity.

More accurately, rather than force negation as some fanfics suggests, she's telekinetically accelerating whatever she touches. She telekinetically accelerates Izuku's body to stop him falling, and does the reverse for the ball, making it so that it continues to accelerate after she throws it.

See what I mean? Because Horikoshi gave Bakugou's quirk a scientific explanation with him sweating a nitroglycerin-like substance and being able to spark it, you have to look at every quirk with scientific knowledge. He could have said 'oh, yeah, I store energy from my quirk in these gauntlets' but Hori just had to be a smartass.

By the way, because of Bakugou's explanation, it's possible that his quirk is not what is named. Yes, it's possible to have two sides of a quirk, as we see in Shouto, but Bakugou's quirk isn't explained in the same way.

Rather than his quirk being creating explosions, his quirk is more like creating sparks in his palms. Why? Well, you see. Bnha never delves into actual quirk theory, but there's more than enough canon evidence that you have one main quirk and then one or more quirk mutations. For example, Ashido Mina's quirk is secreting acid that she can manipulate the acidity and viscocity of. Her appearance is not related to her quirk at all, meaning it's a quirk mutation from her parents. Same with Tokoyami Fumikage. Quirk is Dark Shadow, so there's no need for the bird head.

Why does this relate to Bakugou? Let me explain: Bakugou explains that he recieved a mutation from his parents with his mother secreting glycerin and his father sweating acid with combustive properties. In other words, Bakugou inherited nitroglycerin-like sweat from his parents, but his actual quirk is being able to create sparks.

His quirk is 'Sparks'. Not Explosions.

Why am I ranting about this? Because bnha completely misses all of this! It makes no sense which is a shame because the concept is so interesting! But then it throws away any scraps of potential left when it becomes 'My Kacchan Academia'.

Seriously, why do people and why does Horikoshi love abusive pieces of shit so much? Why did he throw away the potential to look into Shouto and his siblings' feeling about Endeavour? Why did he make Dabi's plot all about Endeavour instead of Shouto?

It's so easy to compare the ways Dabi and Shouto handle their trauma and their ways of revenge. It's so easy to look at Dabi and think about how easy it would have been for Shouto to become like him.

Shouto was transfixed on Endeavour. Everything he did related back to his hate for Endeavour. Using his quirk, fighting, grades, social interaction, everything. His only reason for becoming a hero is to spite Endeavour. It's only because Izuku reaches out to him and saves him from his own toxic mindset that he's able to move one and do things for himself.

Dabi, or Touya, on the other hand, doesn't get that. He doesn't get that person who recognises how far he's gone, how, in trying to spite Enveavour, he's living a life centred on him. How he's jealous of his little brother for being abused and tormented.

While Shouto became a hero to spite Endeavour, Dabi became a villain.

They're both full of hatred at first, but Shouto is saved from that spiral. Izuku helps him. Dabi doesn't have that. It would have been so interesting to see these two face of as parellels, but nope. It's all about Endeavour. Shouto is nothing more than an accessory.

I understand Dabi being hung up on Endeavour, but to outright replace Shouto with the abusive flaming trashbag? No.

Also, if Horikoshi wanted Dabi to be seen as sympathetic or redeemable, don't make him kill innocent people. Don't make it so that he unlocks an ice aspect to his quirk in a life-or-death situation because all that means is that Endeavour was right to hurt Touya the way he did. All that says is Endeavour should have hurt him more.

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON BAKUGOU.

This piece of shit bullied Izuku relentlessly for years, used his quirk on him (yes that is canon), told him to end his life, tried to assault him in Yuuei, tried to kill him, threw a tantrum at an abused kid for not being magically okay with using a quirk that reminded him of his abusive father, assaults Izuku when he tries to work together but still magically gets a pass for being carried out unconcious which Sero was failed for, and the list just keeps growing.

Oh, but my bad. He has a sad backstory. You see, he fell in a river.

[faceofpoe]

Let's talk about that scene in the brig after they go back for Omega in the pilot. Crosshair's been getting more and more worked up - he's just finished blaming Hunter for ignoring orders and getting them locked up when Omega comes to sit with him.

To this point he's criticized Hunter's leadership but hasn't yet broken with the squad. He's not happy but there's still a general "in it together" vibe he's grudgingly following along for.

And then his "you can't help it" conversation with Omega is cut off by the guards ordering him out of the cell. He doesn't move - Hunter puts himself in the middle and, "We stay together." Once they show they're willing to use force, he gets up and cooperates.

Is he demonstrating that he's still a good soldier, unlike the rest of them?

Or is he falling on something of a proverbial sword (what ends up being his own sort of protracted torture version of Plan 99?) to stop this moment from escalating, and counting on the whole 'they'll come back for me' thing when he gets up and walks out?

Faced with only the few blasters left in the room vs when they're first intercepted in the hangar, would they have normally taken their chances fighting their way out this time once the barrier is dropped?

Except now Hunter has thrown this curveball priority in with this damned kid?

If Bracca "aim at the kid" ruthless weaponizing of what he's seen is Hunter's first priority/ 'fire the engine they're hiding in' Crosshair is peak 'hyperactive inhibitor chip' Crosshair, then this post-chip (??) Crosshair is a reversion to his baseline attitude of Omega - which is simply that she has no business being in this fight/in this squad at all.

Part of what makes the whole "you weren't loyal to me" thing so delightful is how sticky it is. You've got a skilled sniper willing to kill gunning for you, what are you going to do?

But what would they have risked for him upon grasping the full implications of the inhibitor chip, upon seeing what it does to Wrecker, if Omega weren't adding this whole new dimension and dynamic to their decisions?

Anyway, my musing is that this scene in the brig is when Crosshair actually went along with Hunter in prioritizing Omega over leaping into action that would put her at risk, and this is at the root of all of his episode 1.15 bitterness/1.16 sticking with the Empire/having stuck with the Empire after having the chip removed(after Bracca??) more so than just a vague 'you should have found a way to save me from the chip/from myself/reunite us once more.'

Making the progression in season 3 from "there is no we" to "did they teach you Plan 72?" the key to unlocking Crosshair's side of reconciliation. When Crosshair opted to stay behind on Kamino, he was still in full "just because you're a clone doesn't make you one of them," mode with Omega in their second side-by-side scene that mirrors the brig.

They chose her, who isn't even one of them, over him, after he fleetingly chose her too for Hunter's sake.

When they cross paths for the first time on Tantiss, "there is no we/I'm not them" - he's still viewing her as this foolish sidekick his one-time brothers saddled themselves with. But he's also trying to optimize what he views as her chances for success, at the cost of his own hope for freedom. Her safety matters to him, Plan 88 - for her own sake, or perhaps more likely, for Hunter & co's sake (hearkening back to their first stuck-in-prison/averting the fight theory).

But then we get their third side-by-side scene once her plan has dead-ended.

Acknowledging "we," neither of them could have done this alone; acknowledging her finally as one of them; perhaps even acknowledging that he still could be, too (see: their flawless execution of Plan 72; the continued cooperation in the next ep; continuing to prioritize getting her to safety over what he views as their best shot after she tosses the credits at him).

(We don't leave our own behind, even when your squad is now a dog you didn't want and a girl you've been noisy-sighing at for the past several hours).

Anyway all of that to say BOY am I looking forward to episode 5 and the messy messy situation they're all in now and the messy messy conversations they need to have.

[universitysunflowers]

So how are we feeling right now? (TBB Spoilers)

Episodes 10 & 11 may be some of the darkest we've seen this season. We all knew the storm was coming but wow that was such a dramatic shift. I definitely had some thoughts and realizations after watching the latest release.

Okay first off lets talk about the elephant in the room: Tech. A lot of people thought that Identity Crisis would be about Tech and his struggle with having been made into the shadow clone CX-2, but it was actually about Emerie (I'll get back to her in a bit). Even though we don't know exactly who that shadow clone is yet, I do think it could still be Tech. In episode 11 (plus 6 and 7) we saw a lot of hints towards Tech as we knew him in seasons 1 and 2; things like the way he spoke, his leg getting crushed, his flying, and his use of Cid and Phee to get to the others on Pabu. One thing that really stood out to me when he was on Phee's ship is the way he put his hands on the flight controls while downloading her data, almost like it was second nature to him, something familiar he did without thinking (I know this is a stretch but it really jumped out at me as a parallel to the countless scenes of Tech flying the Marauder, it just felt like him again). However there is a dark side to all of this. If CX-2 is Tech that means that:

Tech destroyed the Marauder; the ship that was a home and refuge for CF 99, both during the war and after the Empire took over. It was the one real constant they had in their lives and he would be the reason it's gone.

Tech destroyed peace on Pabu; a place where he and the others felt safe and grounded for the first time since Kamino. It also means he would be at least partly responsible for destroying the lives of everyone who helped and supported them in season 2 (CX-2 was ruthless in ep 11, they made that very clear).

Tech used Phee to accomplish all of this; a friend who trusted and cared about him and rest of the batch.

Tech would be the one who hunted down and eventually captured Omega, whatever that may mean in the future.

There are a lot of people who think that bringing Tech back would make his death meaningless, which I completely understand. Some characters should die and stay dead as a way of furthering the story and development of other characters. However, in this case I do think that revealing CX-2 to be a brainwashed Tech would have huge implications for the narrative. It would mean that one of their own was responsible for so much of the destruction we have seen this season, and that just because Crosshair resisted imperial experiments, does not mean that the others have similar abilities/plot protection. It would also bring immense emotional conflict into the rest of the season (however they might do it) and could be a deciding factor in the rest of the batch's fate; would they realize what he's done and treat him as the enemy, or would they see him and hesitate, possibly losing even more than they already have. Revealing Tech as the shadow clone would be incredibly dark, especially after all of the cruel and deliberate things he has done this season that contrast to the mild tempered and caring persona we previously knew (even if he didn't always show his feelings outright). While I do think there is a possibility that he is dead and not coming back, I definitely would not put it past the writers to do something so drastic as a way of adding to the season's narrative value with a conflicting and completely jarring revelation that would have so many significant implications for so many main characters. I did not mean for this post to be so long but let's keep going anyway.

Some other more general realizations I had:

As of right now, Hunter and Wrecker don't know that Omega was taken again. That said, we might not see them finding out and the next episode could definitely jump ahead like they have done with other significant moments like Crosshair's return.

Crosshair could be blamed for letting Omega give herself up and missing the shot to put a tracker on the ship, especially if they never see her again (but I'm choosing to believe that won't happen). There is no way Hunter wouldn't have something to say about that, even after they have mostly patched things up over the last few episodes. This also contributed to the tone of the episode 11 ending; he missed the shot, meaning they have no way of tracking her and are no closer to finding Tantiss. It was a very bleak note to end on in general, not at all like some hopeful purpose driven endings we have seen previously.

Just because Omega gave herself up does not mean that the Empire is going to leave Pabu intact. She distracted CX-2 by letting him take her back to Tantiss but the other troopers were still there, and I doubt they will just pack up and leave without a fight now that Omega is back in their control.

There are only 4 episodes left; what if they don't reveal CX-2's identity at all, and just leave us guessing (I still think there could be merit to the possibility of it being Cody or a Crosshair clone but that gets less likely every time we see him). Or worse, what if they keep hinting at it to make sure we know who he is, but never give us proof; instead just leaving us with the knowledge of what happened to Tech, and what he has done, without any other closure.

Ok let's talk about Emerie. I was definitely not expecting her to be the focus of Identity Crisis, but I thought that was a really interesting twist. We haven't seen her in a while so it was nice to get her perspective, and to get a better idea of what project Necromancer is all about (though I am still not totally sure where they are going with that so I'm reserving my judgments until later). As the title implies, she is definitely starting to question her place with Hemlock and the Empire, and I am also wondering how she is going to react to Omega being captured again, especially knowing what she knows now. I definitely think Emerie will be more sympathetic towards Omega's independence and desire to help the other clones. We might even see the two of them working together on a future escape attempt? Overall I enjoyed episode 10 and I am glad Emerie is finally getting her moment to contribute to the plot, especially after her importance was so obiously revealed in Crosshair's escape attempt during season 2.

I'm sorry this got so depressing but unfortunately I think that is what we can expect for the rest of the season unless something really unexpected happens. Also if you read that entire novel then thank you I swear I didn't think this post would be so long when I was writing down my thoughts earlier but here we are.

[heyclickadee]

I've had this sitting in my drafts for a few days and just forgot to post it. Anyway! Thoughts on "Entombed" (sorry, this got long): 

1. There's an ancient mechanical creature hidden under a mountain on an uncharted world activated by a mysterious crystal and implied to have razed its entire planet. Why? How does this technology work? Is the mechanical creature alive or sentient in some way? What is it about the crystal that activates the creature? Is this just technology, or is it force weirdness, or both? Why did somebody (potentially the Zeffo) build a planet destroying giraffe of terror? Why was it in the mountain? Did someone hide it there? Did the engineer who designed it base its appearance off of a real animal? Did it hide itself? I have questions.

2. I had to watch this one twice to decide what I thought. I enjoyed it the first time, but I was so thrown by how completely different it was than what I was expecting that I had to give it another shot. Second time around? I loved it. Sometimes Star Wars is profound and serious. Sometimes it's silly Indiana Jones shenanigans in space, and I love it for that.

3. I'll talk about the whole "filler" discussion lower down, but one of the throughlines that's been carried through to this episode from the very beginning of the season is the idea of these characters exploring life outside Kamino, the army, and even the "hunker down and survive" mode they were all in last season, along with the choices they are or could be making as individuals regarding what kind of lives they want to live. Echo, for example, wants to go back to being a soldier, but this time in a fight against the empire; Crosshair is still choosing to be a soldier (for now), and he's miserable about it but having to live with the choice he made to stay; Tech's gotten to explore a bit of what he wants and likes through the riot racing episode but, more than that, he's being presented with the idea that the galaxy is broader and deeper than he considered and that he maybe has more to offer it than just what he was designed to offer; Wrecker...honestly needs an episode where he's in focus because he seems to be the most content of any of them and I'm not sure what Wrecker wants, besides being with the people he loves; and then this week was Omega's (and sort of but not quite) Hunter's turn. I'm an adult, so I tend to focus on the adult characters, but Omega's such a good character and it's great that she's also getting a chance to explore what kind of person she wants to be. This is the second episode we've seen that really focuses on her being a bit of an adrenaline junky with an interest in treasure hunting. And given what Romar said to her about how happiness is worth all the treasure in the galaxy, that's probably going to be a theme for her this season, and I'm curious to see where it goes.

4. Theres. An inexplicable megazord. Just. Out there. On a dead planet.

5.  Hunter's...Hunter's not okay. And not even in just a "tired dad" sense, I mean that Hunter's probably been crying under his helmet since "Aftermath" and that he's getting to the point where he can't hide how bone-tired and sad he actually is. It's almost shocking going back and watching the first half of season one and comparing Hunter there to how he's been in his season so far, because he was so much more open back then. He was exploring options, asking questions, trying to find a new life for all of them, and came across as pretty confident in his decisions, but after the one-two-three punch of encountering Crosshair on Bracca, getting shot by Cad Bane, and losing Omega? The man shuts down. And he only shut down more after what happened with Crosshair on Kamino. I actually suspect that Hunter agrees more with Echo about what they should be doing than he lets on, even taking his opinion that Omega shouldn't be forced into become a soldier the way they were into account. He's not happy about what they're doing, he doesn't like going on dangerous missions for someone else, and he really only got involved with Cid because they were broke and desperate and because she kind of blackmailed them into doing it, but he keeps digging his heels in and refusing to move. It seems like he feels like he's a failure as a leader, a brother, and maybe even as a father, because he hasn't really been proactively leading the group since episode nine of last season. He isn't really making decisions about what they should or shouldn't do--he's mostly letting other people decide on their missions and then letting them guilt, blackmail, or push him into it because he's so scared of making a decision that get's another one of them hurt or results in them losing another person the way they lost Crosshair (or worse) that he's mentally and emotionally paralyzed AND emotionally isolating himself from everyone else. And that paralysis is starting--more than starting--to cause friction on the team, and I'm curious to see how that's going to affect the story moving forward.

6. Seriously, someone get this beautiful bandana man some therapy.

7. Likewise, the vibe between Echo and Hunter this episode was interesting. As much as they're (at least outwardly) disagreeing on what their next steps should be, there doesn't seem to be any animosity between them, at least not yet.  All those silently exchanged glances? They disagree, but they trust each other, and I kind of think they both think that they other one is going to come around to their point of view. Eventually.

8. Omega is me if someone sets me loose on a scavanger hunt.

9. They gave me the space archaeology (kind of) and I am VIBRATING

10. I WISH archaeology was this fun. I spent an entire season walking surveys up in Wyoming, and did I ever come across a map to an ancient mecha-beast? No. No I did not. (I kid, real life archaeology is very fun and I have absolutely cried about lithic debitage and fingerprints on potsherds because someone it means someone lived and breathed and died and that stuff might seem boring but it's evidence of a human life and that's beautiful.)

11. Phee! All hail our pirate queen!

12. Phee is fun and her fashion sense is impeccable. And she has a sword. She's got a vibro-cutlass. Or something like unto a sword. But in space. And regardless of how anyone interprets them, I really liked the scenes with her and Tech at the beginning (characters being a bit snarky towards each other? I'm going to have fun), and Omega imprinting on her like a little baby duck was adorable. It's similar to the vibe Ezra had with Hondo, but where Ezra was a bit of a little shit (and I mean that affectionately) with a tendency to give Hondo chances he knew Hondo didn't deserve because he thought Hondo was a fun dude to have around (and maybe because he saw in Hondo a lot of the kind of person he would have turned into if the ghost crew hadn't picked him up and given him a chance), Omega's just all starry eyes with Phee. Is Phee trustworthy? Probably not. Is she fun for now? Oh yeah.

13. It would be hilarious if Phee turned out to be a former jedi who worked in the archives but left the order well before the war or order 66 because she wanted to go treasure hunting. This is the crackiest of crack theories and I do not expect it to happen. But it would be funny.

14. I loved how into the treasure hunt Tech started to get. Asking questions? About the puzzles? Doing his own investigation on the age of the site? Yes.

15. "I suspect that this is not, in fact, a treasure vault," as the aforementioned inexplicable megazord shambles to life once again proving that Tech, with his deadpan one-liners, is the funniest damn character on this show.  

16. Not much Echo this episode, which was a little disappointing, but I liked what little we got. Hopefully there's more in the next one!

17. There's a MAP to an TECHNOLOGICAL MONSTER that PREDATES THE REPUBLIC just OUT in SPACE and I am HERE FOR IT.

18. I didn't think it was possible to make something that vaguely resembles an ankylosaur look scary. I've been corrected. I'm glad Wrecker was able to throw the ankylosaur from hell out the window. (But also I feel a little sorry for it). 

19. Mel??? Running from the death ray??? And not making it??? Corbett and Rau I AM IN YOUR WALLS WHAT THE HELL??? But no, actually, that was a pretty good way to up tension without taking out one of the regular characters.

20. So...I'm not saying that spite is low-key a good motivator, but spite might low-key be a good motivator. I'll just leave it at that.

21. No one calls the clone characters by their names. I didn't think this was anything at first, but the more of this season I see, the more I think it definitely is. No one who isn't a clone addresses a clone by their name. And it's not just the villianous or morally ambiguous non-clone characters, no one does it. Not Phee, who has a couple different nicknames for everyone in the batch (including Tech, even though she asked what his name was), not Cid, not Rampart, not even Romar, and Romar was definitely a good guy. The only exception was the announcer and the crowd using Tech's name in "Faster," because that's the name he gave when he signed up (and there's a pretty good chance no one suspected he was a clone) and even then the announcer had to comment on how weird it was and questioned whether or not that was even a name. It's an interesting trend and is probably playing into the idea of how clones were viewed by most of the galaxy during the war--basically as non-people--but I also want to see where it goes before I come down on any hard conclusions. Apart from the overall trend, I do think that every character we're meeting is doing it for a different reason. Rampart pointedly calls clones by their CT numbers as a sign of disrespect. They are not people to him and he doesn't care if they know that. Cid? I think it's so she doesn't get attached. She doesn't want to like them too much. It might be the same for Phee, buuuuuut I'm not sure. And then with Romar...I kind of wonder if he kept calling Tech "Ace" partly because he didn't realize that Tech's name was Tech. Same with the announcer in "Faster" scratching his head over "Tech" being a name. Romar could have thought that "Tech" was a codename or a squad designation, because...I mean...clone names are unusual. Even within the galaxy far far away with the exceedingly silly names, clone names are often etymologically weird. And every person in the batch is named after their job. It'd be like going to the store and finding out that the person loading the shelves is just named "Stocker." And--hey, sad thought about clones--I kind of wonder if most people in the galaxy just assumed that clones didn't have names. After all, they're manufactured people, people who didn't--from what people could tell from the outside--have families. Who would name them? is probably what a lot of people who didn't know the clones would ask. The only people who called the clones by their names were the jedi and other clones; now the jedi are gone and most of the clones aren't in a position to even use their own names right now.

22. I just made myself sad about clones.

23. I LOVED the look of...well, of everything in this episode. It honestly felt like half the purpose of this one was to allow the art and effects teams to flex and flex they did.  

24. This whole episode is like if someone decided that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Castle in the Sky, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Godzilla: King of Monsters were the same movie, and I appreciate that energy. 

25. I love that the batch's reaction at the end was basically just, "Well. That just happened." I need Crosshair to come back so they can tell him this story. Them just saying, "While you were off with the Empire we were awakening the ancient horrors," and him jokingly threatening to leave again because there's no way he's believing that this happened.

26. What is the kingdom of Elweys? I need it. I need to know. (For real, though, I'm actually glad that none of the crazy ancient technology stuff in this episode was explained. It gives the GFFA a bit of temporal depth that it doesn't always have and I'm here for it.)

27. Regarding the filler discussion: Not every story has to be serialized. It's okay for some shows to just be a series of putting characters in different combinations and scenarios and seeing what they do. In fact, that used to be the norm. For decades. That was how television worked. It's only in the last decade or so that serialized television has become more of a regular thing. 

Furthermore, there's a spectrum of ways to serialize something. On one end of that spectrum you have your eight-hour movies--things like Kenobi and Moon Knight, where pretty much every episode begins where the previous episode ended, and where no episode is complete without the overall structure of the entire show. On the other end of that spectrum you have your tentpole episode shows--think something like the first season of the Ducktales reboot--where you can mostly watch the episodes in any order you want because most of the episodes are the characters getting into various shenanigans while most of the plot is reserved for big event episodes, usually mid-season or season finales. And then elsewhere on that spectrum you'll have shows that are written a little more like a novel. Every single episode or chapter will have its own story, its own miniature inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and its own mix of plot, character development, and worldbuilding (sometimes focusing a little more on one than the others), but the successive episodes or chapters build up to an overarching story and overall structure, and it can be hard to see how or what that overarching story is until you get to the end of the whole story. That's what The Bad Batch is. It's that kind of serialized story. 

And--just a last thought--if we're going to say that an episode is filler and doesn't contribute to the plot, we've got to one, consider that maybe story is more than plot, and two, ask ourselves what the "plot" actually is. Anyway, this is just me being a little bit salty, but the unending "filler" discourse whenever The Bad Batch isn't Crosshair's Agony Half-Hour got old last season, and this will probably be the last thing I say about it. (Also, this is just me and my two cents, so take it with a grain of salt). 

28. Jumping off of that, this kind of episode does make me suspect that we are getting at least a third season, because it feels like the writers are taking their time taking us we're they're going. I am more than okay with this.

29. DID I MENTION THE INEXPLICABLE MEGAZORD???

[wendingways]

ROTS Padmé time travels to AOTC AU

AU where Padmé dies at the end of ROTS and wakes up in 22 BBY, on the night of Zam Wesell's assassination attempt.

Padmé wakes up, rolls over, and realises she hasn’t been able to do that this easily for months. Remembers everything that happened in the past couple of days. And realises her babies are nowhere in sight.  And it’s dark, but this looks a hell of a lot like her room in the senate apartment complex.  And oh shit, what’s that shadow moving along the wall?

She doesn’t know how she got back here, or where her children are, but she does know the galaxy is not a safe place for her right now, and shadow-skulkers are rarely up to any good.  So, she grabs her blaster from under her pillow and shoots. Voila, dead assassin bugs.

Anakin predictably comes running (and Obi-Wan too).  Padmé turns the blaster on him.  But he’s very young.  Obi-Wan is also very young.  And Padmé is very confused.

Anakin is like, “Hey, what are you pointing that thing at me for?  I’m supposed to be protecting you!”

And then her eyes focus on the long braid hanging over his shoulder.  Short hair. 

I hold that finding Padmé aiming a blaster at him would make Anakin a little less prone to AOTC-type creepiness.

And then it all starts to maybe-kind of-sort of make sense.  No kids.  Young Anakin.  The dead bugs on the floor.  Is it really possible that the Force sent her back in time as she died?

Obi-Wan still goes out the window after the droid.  Anakin stays behind, however, because Padmé’s Force presence feels distinctly rattled, and she still looks frazzled, and he’s not at all sure she should be left alone.

Padmé, alone with Anakin and not exactly comfortable with it, tries for humor.  She points to the bugs.  “Want a midnight snack?”  Anakin just stares at her.  Oh, right.  She hasn’t found out about that particular dietary habit of his yet, in this timeline.

Anakin is a little perplexed as to why there’s the slight ring of an inside joke to her words?

They clean up the bug carcasses, he returns to the living room, and she goes back to bed and has a long cry.

She hears a clattering from the kitchen, and a little later, Anakin knocks on her door.  “You okay?  I thought… I brought you tea?  Obi-Wan always says this one’s good for when you’re feeling… uh… unsettled.”

Padmé is torn between equally strong desires to deal him a good, hard slap and to bury her face in his tunic and pretend the next three years haven’t already happened.  Neither of which is appropriate at this juncture, so she compromises, and graciously accepts the tea.

She still goes into refuge.

Debates not even trying to show up for MCA vote, because she knows clones are already there, on Kamino.  She knows Palpatine will weasel his way into getting an army even if the majority votes against MCA.  And hell, she knows the vote will fail.  So what’s the point?

But decides the point is to strengthen her faction and demonstrate her position.  She needs to build her coalition.  The good news is she already knows who she’ll be able to trust, so she can get them together faster, and then focus on recruiting more difficult allies.

She wears much more sensible clothes for refugeeing.

On the way to Naboo, she asks Anakin if he’s heard from Shmi lately.  A perfectly normal conversation topic.

“No.  I’ve been having dreams, though.  Of Mom, she’s hurt, she’s dying, and—Obi-Wan says it’s nothing, but I just… they feel real.”

“I have a friend who’s spent time on Tatooine,” Padmé said.  “I’ll ask her if she can get in touch with your mom, if that will give you some peace of mind.”

“Really?  You would do that?”

“Of course. 

Then she calls Sabé, and she’s like, “Hey, I need you to meet me and a friend in Mos Espa, and pretend that you found out that Shmi Skywalker was freed by and married Cliegg Lars, and lives on his moisture farm near Anchorhead.”

Sabé is like, “Ohhh… kaayyy….”

“I’ll tell you the whole story,” Padmé says, “but later, in person.  First, there’s something I need you to help me with.”

A couple days into their trip, Padmé tells Anakin that Sabé reported Shmi is no longer with Watto, but she was able to find out where she went.

And Padmé’s like, “You know… we could always go to Tatooine instead.  I’d probably be safer there than on Naboo, really.  No one will think to look for a spoiled Mid-Rimmer on that dustball.”

Padmé and Anakin arrive in Mos Espa, and Sabé takes them straight to the Lars farm.

Padmé praying that a few extra days will buy them enough time to save Shmi.  She knows she should be grateful for the chance she was given, but damn it, why couldn't the Force have dropped her even just a little farther back in time?

When Anakin heads out to go to Tusken camp, Padmé is like, "We're coming with you.”

He protests, because she needs to stay safe, but she’s like, “If you want to talk about unsafe, how about running off without backup?  Sabé was a queen’s bodyguard, don’t forget, and I have the same training.”  And three years more practical experience.

Anakin relents, mostly because no way he’s going to out-stubborn both Padmé and Sabé. 

Padmé gets water, maybe other med things, blanket?  And then she and Sabé head out with Anakin.  She’s determined that there will be no slaughter today.

They get there, Shmi’s not good.

Padmé her hand on Anakin’s shoulder as they approach.  Steady.  I’m here.  Sabé is here.  You’re not alone.  Shmi’s going to be okay.  I hope.  If she isn’t, Sabé has orders to shoot Anakin with a stun bolt while Padmé distracts him.  After that… Padmé supposes she would have to call the Jedi, and she and Sabé would just have to keep stunning Anakin until one of the Order arrives to deal with him.  Tough love.  She prays it won’t come to that.

“Sabé, stand guard.  Anakin, help me get your mother loose.  Give her a little of the water.”  She needs to keep him focused on being useful, and not on thoughts of bloody vengeance. Has she always been this unrattled in a crisis, or is she keeping her cool only through her determination to change the future?  Padmé doesn’t even know.

Man, if Anakin fell in love with Padmé before, he really will now that she's helped save his mom.

She has a bit of euphoria from averting disaster, and then she sees Anakin staring moodily out, saber in hand.  Oh, no.

“I hate them.”

“I know.”

“Jedi aren’t supposed to hate, but I want them to hurt.  Like they hurt her.”

“I know.  I've hated the Neimoidians ever since they invaded my planet.  Hating those who harm us is a natural reaction.  Just... it doesn't mean we have to act on it, you know?  Because then we aren't acting any better than the people we hate."

She places one hand over his, and with the other gently tugs on the lightsaber.  “Let me keep this for you.  Just until you’ve got some distance from all of this.  I don’t want you to do something you might regret, Ani.”

He lets go, and she hooks the saber to her own belt.

“Come on.  Let’s get your mom home.”

He gives a jerky nod.  “Okay.”

Padmé tries to draw Anakin out, have actual conversations instead of terrible flirting, and give him options so he doesn't feel that he's stuck in the Jedi Order.

"Anakin... I know, years ago, Master Jinn said you would be a Jedi one day, and I know you wanted to then, but... people change, you know?  And there's nothing wrong with that.  I just want to make sure... that you know you aren't trapped, if you find it's not for you.  I have lots of connections, if you ever need them, or even if your family does."

She takes a moment, lies down, stretched out in the sun, on the sand.  Just being.

Anakin wanders over.  "What the kriff are you doing?"

"I'm enjoying being alive.  It's something I didn't appreciate often enough, before I... before now, I guess."  Teasingly, she adds, "Why don't you come join me, Ani?"

His nose wrinkles in disgust.  “No thank you.  I hate sand.  It’s coarse, and rough, and irritating—and it gets everywhere.”

“If you say so.”

She gets up, and proceeds to shake sand out of her clothes.  And hair.  Anakin gives her an I-told-you-so look, as Beru tells her not to track sand inside because it gets everywhere and she just cleaned the floors.  And then a wounded look, as he dodges a handful of sand she tosses at him.

“Sorry,” she tells him, only half meaning it.  “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.”

“A long time?”

Oh, kriff.

“Yes.  Five minutes feels like forever when you’re waiting to throw sand at someone.”

Padmé tells Sabé everything?  And then she's not keeping secrets from her like before.

"You're not getting together with that idiot Jedi again."

"Not right away."

"Not ever, you hear me, Padmé Amidala?  I will fight you, knock you out cold, and carry you away to some hidden corner of the galaxy before I let you throw your life away like that."

"If you tried to fight me, you’d lose.  I've had more practical experience than you at this point, Sabe.  But I'll be careful, I promise.  I'll only do it if I see that I can trust him.  And only once Palpatine is out of the way.  I, we've, already kept Anakin from the first step toward the Sith.  We can do the rest.  Shorten the war.  Save the Republic."

A few days later, Anakin finds Padmé in the kitchen, reading from her datapad.

“I just wanted to say—thank you, Padmé.  You… you really are an angel.  If you hadn’t suggested calling Sabé, and if you hadn’t been there tonight—well, I don’t know what I would have done.”

“I know.  It’s terribly cliché, but that’s what friends are for.”

“Friends?”

She can see the disappointment he tries to hide.

“Yes, Ani.  I hope I can call you my friend.”

“It’s just… I thought, maybe…”

She lays the datapad aside and gestures for him to join her at the table.

“I was in a whirlwind romance once.  It ended very badly.  I can’t do that again.  I won’t.  I… I like you very much.  But I need you to give me time, and space.”

Geonosis happens.  Padmé tells Anakin to be careful before they part and he fights Dooku.

“Be careful, Ani.  Try to come back in one piece, okay?”

And Anakin, being in a much more balanced frame of mind than he was in the original timeline, actually heeds her and isn’t quite so arrogant when it comes to fighting Dooku.

As the war goes on, Padmé builds an anti-war, anti-Palpatine coalition.  It goes faster this time, because she knows who she should reach out to and what arguments to use

Gives them all more time to spend on recruiting other senators to the cause.

She also does some work to dig up dirt on Palpatine.

Has the Handmaidens quietly investigate his estate, financial affairs, or whatever on Naboo, too?

Padmé gets closer to the Jedi Order, spends more time with Ahsoka when she can, and gets Ahsoka to introduce her to Barriss.

Tells Barriss if she ever needs a confidante outside the Order, she’s here.

Consequently, Barriss goes to Padmé when she’s struggling, and Padmé talks to Anakin and Obi-Wan about getting her transferred out of active service.

Becomes either involved in Senate duties, working with Padmé’s coalition, or healing

Padmé also finds some way to minimize the damage from the Rako Hardeen incident.

She invites Satine to Coruscant for a political meeting of some sort, just before she would be imprisoned/Maul would appear

Maybe she and Anakin are a little matchmakery with Satine and Obi-Wan.

The war ends, maybe a little ahead of schedule or maybe not.  Palpatine is outed as a Sith.  Anakin has a bit of a struggle with that, but not nearly as much, and he’s able to do his Chosen One thing and help defeat him.

The Jedi look at the closeness of the crew, Barriss shares how she was floundering until Padmé stepped in.  The Jedi review their stances on attachment, etc.

Padmé and Anakin, who’ve been building a close relationship over the course of the war, marry.  Not secretly.  Shmi gets to be there.  And Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Rex and the rest of the 501st, and the Naberrie family.  Probably Satine, as well.

And let’s say Luke and Leia are just fated to exist, because it’s hard to imagine a SW universe without them.

I’m posting this as a bullet point AU, because frankly, I’ve been getting what seems like a crap ton of plot ideas lately, and there’s just no way I’m going to be able to write fics for them all.

If anyone wants to pick this up and run with it, flesh it out, make a oneshot or a multichapter fic or whatever, be my guest! (Please just make sure to notify and credit me!)

[yukipri]

Something bothers me about Ahsoka's training.

You said it was secure, but the training is done in a place that is not at all suitable and she falls (several times) on an extremely hard surface. There is no end to the training, no time limit or victory, she just has to hold on until she passes out. And no one comes to look after her when we see her stagger from the FIRST time. Even Rex, used to worse on Kamino, worries.

Then, for what the training brings, it trains her endurance but NOT how to get out of the situation. Anakin is an overpowered child of the Force, he can stay under enemy fire for a long time, but it is completely useless for another Jedi. If they do not escape or defeat their opponents, they’re dead.

If Ahsoka survived Order 66 (other than luck, Rex's hesitation, help from others...), it's because she managed to escape, she didn't stay inside to take the shots (less than a minute so stamina is not very useful). From this point of view, the Jedi test was much more useful since she moves and gets rid of the threat in a limited environment (test which uses droids programmed to more closely match the tactics of battledroids, so also useful in war).

Even to train his perception of the opponent's intentions (not very useful against robots), it is not very effective. Anakin gives no advice, he never praise here, he's even dismissive for her well-being. It's more of an exercise than anything else, but with no definite end (other than getting knocked out).

This training would be useful if it was safer and more progressive (because clones are actually better than droids) and as a supplement. In the end, Anakin is very Anakin. He doesn't want to lose her because it will hurt him, but her immediate safety and well-being doesn't bother him.

And if Ahsoka does not protest, it is because she is 14, she trusts her mentor. She doesn't know anything about war so she doesn't know what training she needs. She is too young and inexperienced to know any better and protest.

(but I think I'm just bitter because Filoni added a scene that no one needed to prove that Anakin is great, Ahsoka the best, and that the other Jedi died because they weren't as clever. Even though we already knew that she was strong with TCW and that the Jedi were taken by surprise by people they trust) (and really, if it was someone else instead of Rex, he would have ordered to shoot at her, and Ahsoka would be dead)

(and Anakin trains the clones to shoot a Jedi. Jesse was there)

On a side note, I really like your new chapter. Oddly funny and emotional.

I debated whether I should even publish this ask, because while I respect your right to having your own take, I strongly disagree with the vast majority it, and it largely baffles me.

In response to this ask.

It seems your major complaints with Anakin's training is that she falls...on a non padded surface??? And that he's over-training her for a difficult situation that she should likely be able to escape?

Please keep in mind that while she is a child, she's also not a helpless child who needs to be babied. At the time of the training, she has already survived battles. Anakin has already seen her in action and is aware of her current abilities.

Of course if it was in a live scenario, she should look for alternative solutions. Anakin knows she's smart and can think outside the box. There are infinite scenarios she may potentially be in, and in every single one she will have different contexts to consider. That is not the point of this exercise. The point of this exercise is so that if she is under fire, for however long she needs to be given the situation, she'll make it out alive.

I don't have the time or energy to refute all of your points, nor do I have interest in prolonging discussion on this topic (perhaps you could find an Ahsoka-centric blog who would be interested!).

And while Anakin is a flawed character, I am also not remotely interested in bashing him. Likewise, while I don't agree with all of Dave Filoni's choices, I am also utterly uninterested in bashing him on my blog, as he still is responsible for the creation of many things that I love.

While the episode may have felt unnecessary for you, I enjoyed it, thought it was told beautifully from both a narrative and cinematographic perspective, and felt it made sense for the context of the story as well as for both Anakin and Ahsoka's characters. If the episode is upsetting to you, I recommend not thinking about it!

Follow ups on this topic will not be answered. I believe I have already clearly articulated my response in my previous ask response linked above. Thanks for understanding!

And thanks for liking the last chapter of the Prime Override!

❀ ❀ Send YukiPri an Ask! ❀ ❀

[lost-on-kamino]

Wish them well

So this is a little something after Cal broke my heart with unexplain the unforgivable... and then gaeasun broke my heart a second time with The Two Hundred... and THEN EPS WITH EXHALE THE PAINT FUMES So i’m joining the pile but with a different side of things... Batchmates wondering where one of their own is...

A Metro(nome) squad fic where Beat is ready to scream, Tacet is silently murdering and Pitch lives up to his name Also on Ao3 The little song i was listening to which is our dear Corrie is singing at the end...

- There was silence.

 Beat would usually love silence between the constant relief missions but… this silence wasn’t at all settling her mind. It had been ages since Rhythm had reported in, which had coincidently been when the 104th were joining the chase for Commander Tano, the falsely accused bomber.

Where was her Vod’ika.

The one she had left when she was transferred over from the Coruscant Guard to the 104th under General Plo, the one who would drop a new playlist over the date and cheer up the chat room, the one who sent pictures of the two natborn children he had made friends with over their pictures and art.

Beat knew he was still around, after all; he didn’t leave the chat. One of their rules within Metro Squad had been:

If you were going back for Kamino, you’d remove yourself from the Metro Squad Chatroom to signal the others to look for you, they were siblings and siblings all together even if one of them had gone.

However… Rhythm had just stayed silent.

LUCKILY for her… she knew two Idiots on Coruscant at the same time… despite Pitch muttering about the Guard and Fives, though repeatedly tagging Rhythm to get the Guard’s view in regards to the matter. She didn’t care about the damn time for them, while she predicted it would be about early morning for the two. She had requested a bit of privacy which Commander Wolffe had granted before calling, knowing Tacet would have their Comms on fullblast. She waited a few moments before stopping the call and typing into the chatroom.

[Heart skipped a Beat] Wake up sunshines, I know you two fuckers are on Coruscant

[Silence is Golden] Of course

[Loud Blue Screaming] It’s early… you know the time here… Why you doing this

[Heart Skipped a Beat] I want you two to check on @[Continously Talking]. He’s not responded and it's been ages since… THAT.

[Loud Blue Screaming] Why?

[Heart Skipped a Beat] Because you two are on Coruscant and you should check on him; Idgaf if you’re pissed off at the Guard about Fives, Grow up.

[Loud Blue Screaming] I’m not! I know the others are tense but I’d never drop Rhythm and his buds like that!

[Silence is Golden] You’d be breaking the Biggest rule

Beat leaned back on the crate as she looked at Tacet's message. Chord. They all promised Chord they would watch his Twin as they watched his body leave their sight and into the ashes. They’d watch his Twin. Pitch was the youngest but they always knew Rhythm was the one who’d be hit by everything the hardest, yet he tried so much to cheer others.

[Loud Blue Screaming] We’ll get up now… should be about time his usual shift starts up.

[Heart Skipped a Beat] Please… Let me know if he’s safe. At least for those he’s connected with; Lenta, Agi, Vite, Kiibuna, the Dead Men….

[Silence is Golden] Understood

Beat looked away from her Comms and sighed. Always her to get the others motivated, but when Mae poked her head in and glanced over her, she pouted.

“What’s wrong with you” Beat paused as she brushed a tear away.

“Nothing… not yet… Just hoping for some good news.”

-

Tacet had stretched quietly as Pitch finished off pulling on his armour, looking back. The two had ended up renting a room to actually sleep around in proper beds than the barracks. Soon the two headed out quickly while avoiding the stares of the general public as they walked towards the Coruscant Guard headquarters. Pitch yawning to himself as Tacet rolled his eyes; his fault for staying up to watch that damn holo-drama. The medic and ARF trooper entered the doors and noted how… quiet it was. Like… the lack of Guard members actually roaming in their own base… there were colours of orange and blue instead. This threw Pitch off, why wasn’t he contacted? Tacet frowned before quickly approaching the 212th member on the desk. “...Ah… ahhh” He quietly tested his voice. “...Excuse me.” Pitch however looked around more as he knew his brother would quietly claim the information, knowing Rhythm, he’d be in the Medbay.

He missed the horrified look upon his quiet brother’s face and the drop of his helmet. But the medic kept going along as he continued to move along fast. He noticed two troopers exiting the Medbay with a Coruscant guard member and for a moment, he didn’t notice the Guard’s face for a moment but froze when the familiar freckled face and scars passed by him. He quickly turned and grasped the Clone’s wrist, startling the three. “....Rhythm?” “...Pardon?” All colour drained from Pitch’s face. “...I am CT-2895… I am in the process of moving back to my cell after a Health Check as the Guard have been arrested for misconduct....” “...No… You’re joking… You’re Rhythm… My Vod…. My Ori’Vod.” Pitch shook his head. CT-2895 frowned. “You have the wrong guy…” Pitch shook his head again and looked to his fellow 501st. “No… That’s my VOD. What the Fuck happened here!?” He demanded. “...We were just given orders to escort to medical checks, if you want something, find the Captain or Kix… You know they deserve this after what they tried to do with Fi-” The Trooper didn’t finish his sentence before he fell to Pitch’s punch. “No… You shut up!” He moved again to grab at CT-2895, no Rhythm, as Orange flashed and grabbed his arm as Tacet shook his head. “What the fuck is wrong with you, Pitch?!” The trooper grumbled. “I’ll report this to the captain…” Pitch leaned towards the Trooper, his buddy pulling him away from the enraged medic. “Be sure you do! I want a word with him and why I wasn't involved with my OWN batchmate!” Pitch threatened as the trio continued to press on as Tacet held onto Pitch. “...It’s Rhythm… But… He’s Retconned…” Pitch frowned. “I recognise that formation of freckles, I swear to Kriff.” Tacet looked down. “There’s reports 200 went out and 200 came back wiped… After the hunt for Ahsoka Tano…” Tacet responded to him. “Rhythm… may have been one of them… But Commander Cody and Captain Rex have all the records and we can’t check them without their permission… Unless…” “...Unless?” “....We have ONE person…” Pitch stared at Tacet, who sunk his head, shaking it exasperated and tired. “Rhythm’s shadow.” The two looked at each other before nodding. - What Olly would have suspected was a change of the Guard of his cell, considering his containment needed to be… a little re-enforced. What he hadn’t expected to see… was his Guard open the door before a brick hit his helmet, throwing him into the wall. Tacet stepped into the room, hand tightly clenching the Brick, face blank as Pitch stared almost in horror. “....Wow, remind me never to piss you off.” Olly raised an eyebrow as Pitch checked over the clone as Tacet stepped in, throwing the brick to the side, causing a small dent into the wall as the 212th member looked over the Riot Trooper. Red Alert perked up from his spot, face likely complaining about the MULTITUDES of issues caused by this. “...What do you want?” Olly muttered. “...Answers… about everything.” Tacet responded quietly before moving to his knees and sitting. “...About the Vod you obviously didn’t care for?” Olly glared towards the two as Pitch winced. “...Rhythm means more to me than the 501st… Tacet is the one holding me from going to Captain Rex and fucking punching the snot out of him…” Pitch muttered. “I mean you could do something alternative.” Olly suggested as Pitch grunted. “I’d be willing at this point.” “...Enough… Why did 200 go away and come back reconned… Pitch… almost had an altercation with some troopers over him… I assume… he was one of the ones… who…” Tacet spoke wincing. “Why is he still talking, I know his vocals are still off.” He shook his head before switching to something more comfortable. Tacet smiled weakly. /Pardon/ Tacet’s hands shook twice in a peace formation as Olly read it. /Things are… Odd/ Olly moved his right hand across his chin in a pointed motion. Tacet frowned, folding his arms for a moment. He rubbed his knuckles together.

/Brother?/

Olly’s hands paused. And Red Alert took over. “Order from the top… they requested 200 Guardsmen who were involved with the chase to be re-conned… Rhythm was in the Communications center. He was part of them… all wiped and Returned… Fox put their names as memorials…”

Pitch shrunk a bit. “A few people have been told about everything here… I know a few selected to help Rex after… THAT. Me and Tacet knew nothing. We didn’t even know the Guard were arrested or what happened to Rhythm-”

/You didn’t check/ Olly motioned his hand, pointer to his eye and pinkie to his lips and thumb out as Tacet scowled. /Make it up. Please./ Tacet’s hand shook as Olly twisted his body away from the two, anger rising. They should have known. Red Alert looked over to his taller trooper before looking back.. “You have no time until they check on the guard… You need to know where they’ve likely got Fox’s things… Rhythm… Rhythm left a message for you guys…” Red Alert spoke up as Olly turned quickly back, feeling betrayed by his fellow Riot Trooper. But Red Alert knew… that these two would try their darndest to look into it. “Olly, I know you don’t care anymore but Rhythm was their Vod… they made this effort here. Let them make their decision…” Olly grunted as Red Alert shook his head. “There were others but… Find Fox’s things and find Rhythm’s message to you… I assume your Sister asked you… and knowing her; she'd be waiting until she can come back to Coruscant immediately.” “...You know Beat… She was a Corrie before the 104th.” Pitch sighed before standing up. “...So I guess we’re breaking into the Investigation for Rhythm.” He nodded. “I might be re-conned but then I can join Rhythm at least… He doesn’t deserve to be alone like this…”

-

Little did they know… CT-2895 sat in his cell and looked at his arm. The Blue medic… and Orange ARF trooper… They seemed familiar and distraught at him… No matter… He leaned back quietly, before murmuring words from a long ago lullaby he saw in a dream of a caring mother and her two children;

Well come and well met, my brave little spark How long you've wandered, burned bright as a star Oh, I have awaited you patiently all this time Past every fate Now sing with me once more, share of your life Far greater than memory, its loss and love words cannot hold Boundless the tale overflowsAnd carries your light out to sea

[clonehub]

Starting the finale!

It's been quite an uneventful journey I will say!

Oh muffled volume! You don't get that often. The coolest was when mace had his moment in s1

The pause in this clones when he says Kaminos been destroyed :(

"and I will be left here on my own" :((((

Damn crosshair is really down

Oh he's up

Why was it not in AZs instinct to help 😭

I wonder who taught her to swim

Damn is crosshair really this stubborn

This almost sounds like I think the clones theme from tcw??

Yeah being this deep underwater.....nah

CROSSAHIR BE FUCKING SERIOUS

"all those missions together and you threw away" bitch BE SERIOUSSSS

"soldiers follow orders" notice how he didn't say "good"

Ok crossie baby part of the reason they're all nearly dead is bc of you you know that right

They looooove shoulder bumps in tcw

Kinda crazy that AZ can just weld through two feet of metal

No this was driving me insane. All this running bc you knew y'all was finna drown now that you're on the ocean floor in a cracked tube you want to WALK

WALK AND TALK AT THE SAME TIME BETTER UET RUN

How is this the finale and they really had to slow this shit down 😭

"something on your tiny mind, wrecker"

See look. Wrecker getting the emotional development that everyone should have been getting simultaneously

But tech essentially saying Crosshairs severe and unyielding personality is in his nature is rubbing me the wrong way. It's like. Essentialst idk. Like a long that same thread of eugenics that's been undergirding this show more than an actual plot has, saying oh well Crosshairs never going to change he simply cannot help it. Form one PoV this could be tech being just as uncompromising as crosshair is. Another is the contrast between tech and wrecker as a mind/heart thing which theyve been semi doing for this season. But also does this not essentialize his fascist tendencies too. Nooo he can't help being a fascist or having a personality that lends itself toward authoritarianism it's in his nature and you cannot change nature. Which kinda goes against the whole choice thing Hunters been talking about up to this point. Idk.

"understanding you does not mean I agree with you" this line annoys me sorry it just sounds like. Every Single -Ist and -Phobic person I've come across who's like "yeah I ~understand~ you but I don't have to agree!!" Babygirl I think actual understanding at least on the level as deep as ideology (or in my case various positions of marginalization) would require......nvm I can see here that there's two ways to understand "understand" but also the line is still corny soz

WALK FASTERRRRRRRR

Ok if there's a problem why did you stop walking.

"run!" You should been doing that--

Man Crosshairs run was so dumb

Az was strong enough to carry fives I'm sure he could lift omega up some of these places

"where our MUTATIONS were MANIPULATED and ENHANCED"

Stop calling them defective lmao

"you take things too personally" stay on topic crosshair let's talk about the empire leaving you for dead 🧐

"kamino regs the Republic" wild wild wild

"the empire will control the entire galaxy and I am going to be a part of it" see how he's a fascist guys

Why is he having headaches

LMAO not even omega gave up on him

They've got buttons on the inside?

Oh btw omegas 10 which means tbb is like. Probably 7 if she remembers them being created.

AZI :(

NO BECAUSE WHATS RHE FHCKING POINT OF FOING AFTER HIM??? REALISTICALLY OUTSIDE MAKING CROSSHAIR HAVE HIS LIL FAKE OHT MOMENT OF GOOD

I mean at least they have him now 😭

This is the whitest they'll look in this series

"we want different things" I mean. Yeah. But like fascism is kinnndaaaaaaaa

Second use of the word brother in this series lmao

This Forgive a Fascist ass plotline

You don't get a lot of characters with bangs

DONE

Quite uh. I guess uneventful as a finale all things considered.

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter Thoughts: 369 – A Chain of Events, Across the Ages

O  We open with the scene soon after Yoichi’s murder, one assumes?  AFO’s stone-still face with the tears running down it is a good image, but I think what’s even more interesting is the reversal of what’s typically shaded: usually in the flashbacks, it’s his eyes that are masked, while his gabbing mouth is perfectly visible.  Here, it’s the reverse, with his eyes clear, but the lower half of his face wrapped in shadow.  Nothing to say in that moment of all moments, eh, AFO?

O  Extremely consistent outfits on the (presumably) dead at AFO’s feet, I notice.  Wrapped forearms, a number of do-rags, tac vests, cargo pants—all very paramilitary vibes, as one might expect from a group of people preparing to go up against a guy none of them have strong enough individual powers to take on.  So I assume these were comrades of Second and Third, who dress much the same—I wonder how they split up for this?  That is, did any of them go with Third to get OFA away, or did they all stay with Second to buy time and get slaughtered for it?  (I hope the latter, but mostly because I like an edgy hardened Third.)

O  That flash to the embers of OFA amidst the snow is DAMN GOOD.  Lord, that all fights with AFO could be half as good as the Kamino fight.

O  VFO being so insistently confused as to why he's able to see the OFA vestiges is a little odd? Like, later on, Yoichi will tell Deku that AFO and OFA are resonating, which I would think would be a perfectly apt explanation, though I suppose it is a change to the usual vestige realm AFO is perhaps more accustomed to. Still, he could "hear" his brother's voice from miles and miles away all the way back during Joint Training, before he ever even met Deku in person, so you wouldn't think this would be so incredibly bizarre to him. Maybe he's just distracted by all the pummeling?

O  Christ, I really just do not buy this whole schpiel about how it isn’t the quirks within OFA that AFO should have been wary of.  Not after all the build-up and razzmatazz about it every time Deku unlocks a new one, and definitely not after three laborious pages of Deku combining all of them into Unlimited Whoopass Works.

You know what really gets to me about this?  Okay, so Second here says that it’s not the meta-abilities themselves AFO should have been wary of, but rather the intent of their wielders, that the intent of a power determining its effectiveness is why those powers are called kosei, quirks, “personality.”  Any quirk carries the vestige of its original wielder, a literal will that lingers within the power and can be aligned for or against a new bearer.  I can see the shape of what Horikoshi’s getting at here, especially since the text is clearly framing all this as being in large part about Izuku’s intent.

But it all falls so flat when Izuku’s internal monologue just runs off the powers he’s combining by the name of the power, rather than identifying the will, the individual, whose power he’s calling on.  How can I be expected to believe that it isn’t the quirk that counts, but rather the individual behind it when the narrative reduces those individuals to numbers in a line?  When the story cares more about us knowing the names of all Deku’s sick reality-warping magic powers than it does about him knowing the names of the people he got them from?

Please bring back the BNHA that we had when Class 1-A teamed up to lovingly hand Deku his ass, ASAP.  That’s a scene that would have earned this intent-over-power sentiment.

O  AND ALSO.  As a self-designated MLA Propagandist, I’m afraid I cannot let this rampant historical revisionism slide.  In point of fact, people “call them quirks” because, generations ago, a bunch of government officials pulled a nice-sounding line from the mouth of a dead woman to justify passing a bunch of restrictive laws that were precisely the opposite of what said dead woman—and her very much alive and pissed-off orphan son—had been advocating for.

O  Anyway, it sure is a good thing that Izuku can precisely calibrate the level of force with which he can savage this person he nominally wants to save such that the damage will merely frustrate VFO rather than killing Shigaraki via the time-honored manga method of punching a gaping hole in his chest.  Accidentally killing him because he used 120% of OFA when Ujiko only modified Shigaraki to be able to handle 118% would certainly be awkward! (I continue to hate Deku beating up Shigaraki as any kind of preface to "saving" him, yes.)

O  SPINNER.  Spinner, I am begging you, we need a hard reset on aaaaall this nonsense.  It’s up to you.  I believe in you.  Please come through and let your voice actor enjoy the schadenfreude of a scene the anime absolutely cannot deprive him of. But also, please be okay.  Please retrieve Kurogiri and then immediately report to the person who can fix this.

Let me tell you guys, I’m both pumped and terrified at the thought of Spinaraki Week running right when All This is due to be going down.

O  I spent some time being concerned about how springing Kurogiri would even help, given that—even setting aside Kurogiri's willingness and capability to help—Warp Gate is coordinate-based and Kurogiri has no way of knowing where Shigaraki and the rest are. Aaaaaand then I remembered that Team Villain has a genius hacker on their side who we already know is both worming his way into the U.A. command center's system and in contact with PLF folk, many of whom are accompanying Spinner! Truly, Skeptic's presence here has every right to make getting coordinates for Kurogiri a breeze!

Also, while I much doubt this is the intended read—and if it is, it's much weakened by the possession plot and the shabby way the narrative has treated the MLA—it would be incredibly thematically satisfying for Shigaraki Tomura, whose rise to villainy was marked by him taking on an aspect of all the other villains he encountered, to be rescued by the combined efforts of people from every stage of that development: a childhood caretaker, a member of the League of Villains, and one of the new allies whose lives he spared at Deika.

...Okay, I really need this now.

[cc-2020]

Ok two wrongs don’t make a right but two dark and emotionally painful arcs might make a funnie crack au so

Umbara and the Chips arc

Anakin leaves and krell shows up and starts being a jerk and makes everyone march for 12 hours except oops turns out halfway through Tups chip flips out cause he’s sleep deprived or w/e so he goes and just absolutely gets krells ass who doesn’t expect it cause he’s a jerk about clones

The 501st panic frantically set up camp stick tup in some handcuffs and start blowing up anakins space text to get him to come back so he does so then idk shenanigans and non depressing fix it au commences

i thought about this ask for a while and that's actually a very reasonable idea

let's say krell and the boys have some time pre-mission and krell unpacks his whole ugly personality and orders the 501st to go running for a couple of hours

rex remains quiet for a while but he really sees how his men are growing more and more tired so he's like enough is enough and goes to confront krell

krell starts arguing, saying that the clones should be able to follow some orders, how he doesn't give a flying fuck about the republic and even less fucks about the clones' lives

he basically talks treason

and fives stands in the background and records all of this

anyways, our boys are very sleep-deprived, very stressed and also very exhausted, which promptly activates some chips

suddenly there are like 23 troopers having laser eyes directed at krell and they point their blasters at him because they won't hesitate bitch

krell's dead and rex looks down at his corpse and is like, damn,,, that's unfortunate

so he calls cody via comm and asks him what he would hypothetically do if his men would hypothetically kill a jedi, you know haha hypothetically speaking and cody sits on the other side of umbara like,,, excuse me

(he doesn't call anakin because he's a bit too far away and with the chancellor)

(the recordings of fives later make it easier to demonstrate that krell was ready to sabotage a mission of the republic, so there are eventually no real consequences for the 23 troopers)

assuming that some chips are more susceptible to a technical failure due to an incredible amount of stress, tup wouldn't be the only one to go bonkers - and when there is more than one clone trooper affected, shit gets statistically more interesting

since obi-wan and cody both have pretty nice ranks, they talk to the jedi order (palpatine tries to interfere but no one listens because that's shit they want to investigate okay) and are also the ones approaching the kaminoans. and this time they order a brain scan, making the so-called tumor visible, arguing that these have to be removed, and of course the kaminoans start bullshitting, saying that these tumors have to stay because the tumors are inhibitor chips and are implemented to prevent extremely violent behavior, making the clones less aggressive than jango fett. obi-wan and cody send this shit to kix, who looks at this statement and is seriously offended

kaminoans: the clones can become violent at any time which is why we implemented an organic chip into the right frontal lobe of their brains

kix, a medic: what ?? th e FUCK

kix, taking in a deep breath: alright buckle your seat belts motherfuckers because most ordinary social conventions are cast aside by impulsive behavior when there's a LESION in the right frontal lobe. there's a predisposition to manslaughter and harmful behavior when there's DAMAGE in the frontal region

kix: did you really clone a man with a lesion?? did jango fett have a lesion mhhh??? oh look at these CT scans of these 23 clone troopers, they are all healthy and fine so I THINK THE FUCK NOT

kix, who has no time to breathe: ALSO aggression and violent behavior have many neural correlates. if we clones are all this aggressive, why not modify our levels of serotonin metabolites ??? why not put a chip into the hypothalamus or the amygdala?? why not enhance GABA transmission ??

after listening to kix ranting his ass off, obi-wan, cody and rex naturally wonder why the clones need a chip to prevent violent behavior, even though there is no indication that the clones are more violent than nat-borns. see, they have 23 healthy troopers who randomly went havoc and the kaminoans said their chips malfunctioned. maybe the kaminoans are right and the chip is necessary to inhibit violent behavior BUT since a healthy right frontal lobe is also linked to decision making and judgment, maybe the chip malfunctioned and therefore caused the right frontal lobe to dysfunction, promoting violent behavior

natural conclusion: surgically remove the chips from the 23 clone troopers, look how their behavior changes, and conduct a study that involves a group of clones that do not receive a chip in their embryonic state and compare their behavior to the clones who received a chip (conducted and monitored by the jedi order ofc)

result: the treatment group did not get more aggressive than the control group. and the 23 clone troopers went back to normal after the removal of the chip

therefore, the republic orders the kaminoans to stop implementing the chips, even to remove them, since they obviously proved that the chips can malfunction, causing aggressive behavior. obi-wan, cody and rex naturally don't trust the kaminoans since they already implemented chips without their knowledge, so their strengthen their control positions on kamino and shaak ti becomes even more of a mother hen

(anakin gets the memo a tad later and it's good that way because he's a) to emotional for all of this and b) too close to palpatine)

in conclusion: krell's cruelty randomly activated order 66 and because more than one clone trooper is affected, the jedi council is WAY more invested, barely listening to palpatine or the kaminoans. and even though palpatine is still in the office and the jedi order still has no idea about order 66 he can't do shit because all chips are slowly removed from all clone troopers and he can't really order the remaining clones to go full assassin if anakin is still a good boi

[salty-rey]

Saving Lives

Bad Batch Fic | Sequel to Come Back

Pairing: Crosshair x reader (hinting)

Words: 2.8k

Warnings: Bodily injuries, blood, story time!

A/N: Hello! I wanted to write something that elaborated on the relationship between the sniper and combat medic. It’s rather rough, proof-read once (thank you Grammarly), and I may not captured Crosshair’s personality perfect. I hope you enjoy, and I will be back with another story!

Roughly two weeks have passed since the last mission, and during those long days, you were recovering from being shot. Being bedridden was not ideal, almost driving you stir crazy. Especially whenever you tried sneaking out of the barracks, there was always one member of the Bad Batch there to stop you. 

Wrecker freaked out when he caught you slowly shuffling towards the bathroom, asking why you were out of bed in panic. He only helped you after explaining your destination, waited outside before actually carrying you back to your cot. 

Echo spotted you slowly making your way to the kitchen area before redirecting you back to bed like a concerned older brother, staying by your side and offering his arm for support in case you felt weak. Quite the gentleman.. At least he went back to get whatever food you were craving. 

Tech found you attempting to do some stretches since you were stuck in bed for Maker knows how long. He lectured you on the facts that your wound may open again if you attempt any movement during a specific time frame. Even when you decided to lay back down he was still lecturing!

As for Hunter, he entered the barracks, catching you standing on your feet. You were in the middle of putting your chest piece armor back on when you winced at the slight sting of your wound. The Sergeant went full dad mode on you, scolding you for moving when you’re still recovering. Now you knew how it felt like to be Omega, which caused you to accidentally say, “Okay, dad.”

You watched Hunter’s back stiffen, an unreadable expression crossing his face before he turned around, leaving you alone in the barracks. What was that? You thought before sighing, slowly removing your chest piece. 

Speaking of Omega. Maker, bless that little girl. 

When you were initially knocked out after returning to the Havoc Marauder, Omega refused to leave your side. The boys tried to reassure her that you would be alright, but she wouldn’t budge. After a couple of hours, you woke up, disoriented at first, before spotting the little girl fast asleep on a chair at your bedside. Hunter was awake at the time, and he explained everything while you rested. The boys learned that it was indeed a trooper who shot you and not Crosshair because Omega was persistent in backing you up in your story. You watched the Sergeant carefully picking the youngest member up and carrying her to her makeshift bedroom.

You were awake when Omega rushed into the small barracks, eyes wide before spotting you. She first cried tears of joy, happy to you see that you were okay. Hearing her crying caused Hunter and the other boys to rush in, worried that something was wrong before relaxing after you explained why Omega was crying. 

Since that moment, Omega stayed and kept you company. Whenever she wasn’t informing you of the group’s next objective, she would ask if you needed anything like food or water. You felt bad having her grab something to eat for you, and you mentioned it to one of the boys whenever they pass the barracks. 

“I’ll let her know. She is looking after her teammate though.” Hunter commented before leaving. 

One day during the weeks of recovery, Omega came to your bed per usual and sat down. You were reading on your datapad before glancing up. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” she first started off, looking a bit nervous. 

“Sure, what’s up?” You asked after putting your datapad down. 

“I heard stories of the Bad Batch back on Kamino, but I was hoping to hear how you became part of the team. Since you’re not a clone like us. I-if you don’t mind!” The child asked bashfully, causing you to smile. 

“Of course! Heh, no need to be shy,” you grinned before relaxing against your pillow. “I was formally part of the 501st under General Skywalker, still as a combat medic. I helped aid their soldiers and taught any clones who wanted to become a medic. But I was taken out of that battalion and introduced to these guys after Wrecker’s accident.” You said, pointing to the left side of your face. 

Omega frowned at the mention of the deep scar on the more giant clone’s face. 

“Do you...know how he got it?”

“Not the specific details. Just that his fondness for exploding things up got the best of him at that moment,” you answered. “But that is a story for Wrecker to tell you himself. After his incident and intense care, the Kaminoans and High Command thought that it would be best for the Bad Batch to have a medic at all times. And that’s where I came in.”

“What was it like first joining them?” Omega asked, scooting her chair closer, eager to know more.

You laugh nervously before answering awkwardly, “A nat-born joining a bunch of mutated clones who have a distaste for regs? It wasn’t sunshine and rainbows, Omega. At least, for some time.”

“Wait. Hunter and the others were mean to you?” Omega looked shocked, unable to imagine any of her older brothers being cruel. She began to turn towards the door, ready to get up and give the boys an earful.

“Whoa, whoa. Easy there, targon.” You quickly said, grasping her hand to stop her. “They weren’t mean to me. Just...indifferent.” Omega looked confused still, but she was no longer about to charge out of the room. Seeing that the girl was relaxed, you let go of her hand. 

“The boys are thick as thieves. Having a complete stranger joining them for Maker knows how long it was off-putting. But, one by one, they slowly welcomed me into their merry band. Well, all except Crosshair.” The mentioning of his name caused you to frown, your hand gripping the sheets. 

Omega noticed your shift of emotions, her eyebrows knitting together in worry. “You two were close.”

You couldn’t help but softly laugh a bit. “Not at first. He was the hardest one to be accepted by. It took us potentially dying just to get close.”

At that, Omega’s eyes widened, her jaw-dropping, and you knew that you had to tell her the story now, or she will never leave you alone. 

“Keep up, medic. Or I’m going to leave you behind.”

“Where have I heard that before?” 

It has been several months since you have joined Clone Force 99. And each mission has been quite eventful. All dangerous, non-stop action and heart-pounding moments. You had seen your share of action before joining this group, especially when you were with General Skywalker and his boys in blue. But the 501st pale compared to the Bad Batch. Then again, the Bad Batch is sent to suicide missions, unlike the 501st, so the comparisons aren’t fair. 

Such missions that you were on right now. 

Infiltrate a Separatist’s stronghold, eliminate the enemy commander and destroy their entire base. Nothing new but this time, you found yourself on a thick rainforest-like planet. It was the dead of night, using the shadows to your advantage. While the boys handled the assigned target, you and Crosshair were tasked to eliminate any remaining outside forces and retrieve a getaway vehicle. 

You have been paired with Crosshair in the past, but they have never been pleasant. The sniper all but ignored you or let out harsh remarks, insulting even, but you did your best not to let it get to you. All attempts to befriend him or have him loosen up a bit around you. It was all in vain, though, and even the rest of the batch members have told you to simply give up.

“It’s not you,” Hunter said one day as they were currently jumping through hyperspace. “He’ll come around. Just you wait.”

But it has been so long now. When will it happen? You were getting tired of the glares and sneers, but you refused to give in. 

Focusing back on the mission, the two of you reached the edge of the forest, locating the hanger currently guarded by battle droids. 

“Those dwarf spider droids may be a problem,” you stated, spotting the said droid following the standard clankers. 

“You should have stayed on the ship if you’re going to get cold feet. You’re useless on the battlefield,” Crosshair sneered under his helmet. You remained quiet, refusing to glance at him. To give him any satisfaction of his words stinging you intensely. 

“Just give me some cover fire. And don’t hit me,” you stated before donning your eyeshield then rushing in with your dual pistols. 

Having done this countless times, taking down the droids has become second nature to you. So, one by one, the droids fall, caught off guard from a sniper shot from the thick forest. They were also surprised to see a single soldier rushing them with nothing but two pistols. 

Once the separate hangar was secured, Crosshair silently joined you, neither one speaking. No “thanks” or “great job.” Then again, the Bad Batch weren’t the ones to compliment each other. Do the job, and get out alive. 

“Crosshair, (Y/N). What’s your status?” Hunter’s voice came through the comlink. 

“Just cleared out the hangar. We’re getting the getaway vehicle right now,” you responded as Crosshair began to hotwire one of the landspeeders. 

The landspeeder came to life, and you quickly hopped on, not wanting to test to see if Crosshair would actually leave you behind. The speeder raced down towards the rest of the crew’s location, staying on time with the plan. As the wind whipped through your light armor clothing, you began to hear a faint beeping sound. Leaning down to the ground, the beeping was getting louder and faster. 

“There’s a bomb!” You shouted with realization before rushing towards Crosshair. 

The sniper didn’t have enough time to respond because you tackled him off the ledge of the speeder. You had thought that you reacted quick enough, but the planted bomb exploded, launching the two of you further into the air. You felt your hands slip from Crosshair’s armor, separating the two of you. 

Then, you landed hard onto the ground, and you felt something snap within you. You couldn’t scream, the air being knocked out of you as your body tumbled and rolled to a stop. Summoning whatever strength you had, you slowly pushed yourself up with your arms before sharply sucking in some air, pain flaring on your right side. Carefully feeling your side, you came to a quick conclusion before gasping.  

Crosshair?! Looking around, you spotted the nonmoving clone a few feet away from you, and your stomach dropped at the sight of him. The silver-haired man was lying on his back, his helmet knocked off his head, and you spotted blood oozing from a cut above his eyebrow. Not only that but his right arm and left leg were awkwardly twisted. 

Fighting off your own pain, you crawled towards him before pushing yourself on your feet. The world spun, almost causing you to fall backward, but you quickly regained your balance. We can’t stay out in the open. That explosion will attract more droids to our location. 

Placing his helmet back on his head, you hook your arms under his shoulders. 

Dragging his body deeper into the forest was no easy feat. You were panting and sweating, your head was pulsing, and the pain on your side was overbearing. With every shift, you felt your bones poking at your lungs, causing you to slow down before resuming.

There! 

You spotted a large tree, and underneath the roots, the ground sunk and became hollow. It was a perfect hiding spot, and droids are dumb; they never look up or down. 

Not wasting any more time, you slid both you and Crosshair into the hole, and once settled, you immediately went to work. 

.

.

.

.

Crosshair slowly opened his eyes, blinking several times as his vision cleared. He tried sitting up, but that caused his head to ache more than it already was. Raising a hand, he felt bandages wrapping around most of his head.

“Leave it alone unless you want to bleed again.” 

Crosshair looked over, spotting you sitting nearby, weapons at hand. “What happened?” The sniper groaned, lowering his arm down.

“The landspeeder had a bomb planted and exploded. You broke your arm and leg and had a concussion.” You answered, receiving another groan from the clone after he noticed those said injuries wrapped up in wooden splints. “I’m guessing if the vehicle was activated improperly, it would self-destruct. No wonder the GAR had issues with this Separatist; they thought of everything. Hey! What are you doing?”

Crosshair had begun to sit up, using his good arm to push himself from the floor. “What does it look like?”

“You’re not fit to move around, Crosshair! And neither am I.” You shouted, shuffling towards him, putting your hand on his shoulder, forcing him to stop. “I broke 3 ribs, and I can feel them poking my lungs. Hunter knows of our situation, and they’re working right now to find a way to pick us up.”

Crosshair pushed your hand off of him with his good arm, his glare piercing you. “I don’t need you telling me what to do.”

“Apparently, someone does. As your medic, my word is final when it comes to your wellbeing.” You snapped back, putting your hand back on his shoulder and pushing him down. “I’m not letting you toss your life away, all because you want to be stubborn!”

“Don’t act as you care about us clones!” The sniper growled, struggling underneath your hold. “We’re exposable for you perfect nat-borns!”

Your grip on his shoulder loosen, and your glare slowly softened. “Is that why you hate me? Because I’m a perfect nat-born?” You questioned almost a bit too calmly, which startled Crosshair a bit. He wasn’t expecting this reaction from you. No glares or quick remarks. Just silence. 

“I am not perfect, Crosshair. No one is perfect. Nat-borns, regs, defects, we’re all the same. Living and breathing, filled with emotions and flaws. What we do with ourselves is what makes us unique.” You said before moving away from him. “I chose to be a medic because I was tired of seeing everyone dying around me.”

Crosshair slowly raised an eyebrow, his face slowly relaxing. “What...do you mean by that?”

You spare him a brief glance before leaning against a stomp, steadying your breathing. And so, you began your tale. 

You were born into slavery and having no memories of your parents, too young to really. Among the slaves were children such as yourself, and you called them brothers and sisters. However, one by one, they either died in accidents, killed by their masters, or sold off to buyers. Finally, after years of servitude, you managed to escape, sneaking onto a shuttle and never looking back. 

“The moment I left the shuttle, I was given another chance. A chance my brothers and sisters would never have. That’s when I decided to become a medic. Then I volunteered to be a combat medic because I wanted to save lives.” You finished your story, your breathing steady.

“Even if you were created to fight for someone else’s war, that doesn’t mean your life is meaningless. Believe it or not, but I do care about your life. And that of your brothers’. Losing a loved one is never easy, and I don’t want to see any of you go through that.” You fell silent before taking a small breath. “I didn’t tell you my life story so that you can pity me or for me to win you over. Just to tell you my reasoning in life. What you do with my story is up to you.”

Silence fell between the two of you. Neither one dared a glance at the other. You didn’t like opening up old wounds, telling others your story. The only one who knows is Anakin because the two of you share a kinship of being former slaves. 

An hour has passed, and your comlink came to life. Hunter and the rest of the Bad Batch contacted you, informing you that they have returned to the ship and are en route to pick both of you up. Their arrival was quick, and so was being carried into the Havoc Marauder. 

They had succeeded in their part of the mission, even if they were now chased by any remaining droids. It wasn’t an issue, though, once they left the planet and jumped into hyperspace.   

“After that, we were flown to the closest medical station, and we were both healed up.”

Omega was speechless. She had heard stories of the Bad Batch’s missions back on Kamino through word of mouth from the troops, but nothing detailed. This was quite the tale, and she felt a lot of emotions. The first thing that the girl managed to say was, “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. The important part is that we both survived, and after that, Crosshair wasn’t so harsh on me. In fact, he always had my back. It was his idea to outfit my old armor to that of Clone Force 99, officially making me one of them.” You replied with a soft smile. 

“Thank you for telling me your story. I hope we get Crosshair back soon because I would like to know what he was thinking throughout that moment.” Omega said, causing you to smile sadly. 

“Yeah, me too...”

Omega noticed your sadden expression at the thought of the sniper, awkwardly shifting in her chair. Hoping to lighten up the mode a bit, Omega asked you, “So, why is your nickname “Freckles”?” 

Your cheeks warmed up and you softly laughed, looking embarrassed. “When the rest of the boys checked up on us, I was being removed from a bacta tank. All I had on was my top and tight shorts. They saw that my mostly covered areas like my thighs were littered with freckles, and that’s where I got my nickname. It was embarrassing.”

“Yeah! But Crosshair was the one who pointed it out!” The booming voice of Wrecker came as the boys now stood at the doorway.

“From what I remembered, you were the one who whistled at her in the first place.” Tech pointed out. “Quite improper if you ask me, since she is part of our team.”

“Need I remind you that you were the one who recorded the whole thing,” Hunter added in. “Don’t you think that’s improper?”

The boys began to bicker among each other, except for Echo who simply listened to the retelling of that moment with intrigue. All of this just made you blush harder, covering your face with the sheets. Because you also remember Crosshair looking you up and down, before smirking and saying “Nice freckles.”

[peonysink]

The Nicest Boy in the Galaxy

Part III

Part II here

Part I here

Warning: Explicit, 18 +

Note: More lovely moments with Echo, as you woke up in his arms. Later you spend an incredible night toghether back at your place. This is where the smut happens :)

Also, Echo deserves the world!

You woke up to the sound of faint voices. You opened your eyes, and it took you a second to figure out where you were. That usually happened when you slept well, and this was one of those nights. The first thing you saw was Echo’s big smiling eyes. Your body was still entangled with his, your head on his shoulder, his arm around you, and your leg resting on his his.

“Good morning” - he whispered in your ear, his raspy voice sending electricity through your whole body. His eyes were rested and his whole face looked more relaxed than before.

“Good morning”, you said. “This is a nice way to wake up”

As soon as you said that you remembered all the other soldiers that were sleeping in the same room, and you quickly lifted your head to see if they were still there.

“Don’t worry, they’re up. They’ve been for a while’ - Echo read your mind.

“They must have had hundred questions for you this morning”

Echo smiled.

‘I’m sure Hunter will explain them who you are. Not sure he’ll explain how you ended up in my bed"

“Oh” - you replied.

“Don't worry, no one will be reaching any conclusions. They know me well enough to... they know I’m not like that” - Echo said, and once again confirmed your gut feeling you had from the moment you met him that there was something incredibly pure and sweet about him.

“I’m not worried” - you smiled, and put your head back on his chest. “I’m good. This feels good. I could stay this way forever” - you said and threw your arm across his chest and hugged him tight. “But I guess we should move, shouldn't we? - you asked him.

"Not yet" - he replied and kissed your forehead. "A few more minutes.”

You tugged closer to him, and once again threw you leg across his. He felt how comfortable and relaxed you were.

“Emma” - he said in a more serious tone.

“Yes?” - You replied not moving.

"I’m sorry about last night. I feel like i owe you an explanation…”

"No, you don’t Echo, it’s okay…”

"I know, but I want to tell you… " - Echo insisted.

You lifted your head slightly and looked at him:

"Okay, I’m here, I’m listening.”

He took a deep breath and hesitated for a moment.

"I lost my legs and my arm in a blast in a mission at the Citadel, few years ago. It was a rescue action, and we were saving a jedi master and his men caught by the separatists. The blast knocked me out, and my squad thought I was dead and they had to move on, but I survived and I was kidnapped by the separatists. For a long time I was unconscious, kept in a stasis chamber - they tried to take my humanity and turn me into a machine. They hooked my brain to a computer and scanned it constantly to get access to everything I knew about the military tactics and strategies. They used that information to defeat the Republic forces in numerous battles…"

Echo’s voice almost broke as he said the last sentence. You could hear that this was something that wasn't easy for him to talk about and that he was still coming to grips with it. He unconsciously contributed to his forces’ defeat - that was a lot of weight to carry on one's shoulders.

"I was helpless like that... a vegetable hooked to a machine, until I was rescued by my captain. And these guys."

He pointed his head towards the voices you could hear at the other end of the ship.

"This squad saved you?" - you asked.

He nodded.

“I owe everything to them.” Echo said. "I’d still be trapped in that place, given that no one knew I was alive. But Rex, my captain, never gave up on me. He came back for me in what was almost a suicide mission. And suicide missions are the bad batch's speciality” - he smiled.

"Bad batch?" - you asked.

"That’s the name of our squad. That’s what they call themselves, anyway. The four of them are defective clones, with desirable mutations. That’s why they look different from other clones.”

"That’s amazing” - you replied, your eyes wide. "I had no idea clones could have different mutations like that.”

"Not many do. They are unique.”

"Well then you fit very well in this squad” - you said and lifted your head more to look him closer in the eyes.

Echos eyes were warm and you could feel his arm pull you closer.

You felt incredibly privileged that he shared all of this with you and you wanted him to know. You put your hand on his cheek and you felt him melt into it. He moved your head closer to his and you kissed him. His lips were soft and gentle, and you couldn't get enough of that kiss. You pulled his head towards yours, and he tangled his fingers in your hair. Everything disappeared around you, once again, there was nothing else that ever mattered, nothing came before or will after this moment. Just the two of you, holding each other tight, feeling safe in each other company, sharing the best kiss both of you ever had. You had no idea how long time it passed, but a sound of Hunters voice brought you back to reality.

"Erm, sorry” - you heard his smoky voice.

You both jumped.

“I really am” - Hunter said and smiled.

You blushed, and Echo saw that and tightened his arm around you and whispered "it’s okay” to your ear.

"It’s okay, Hunter. Something you need?" - Echo asked him.

"We need to get to work soon" - Hunter hesitated, clearly not happy that he interrupted you and Echo, but they had a schedule and you realised that Echo was late.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, it’s my fault” - you said and started getting up from the bed. Echo put his arm around your waist and stopped you, as you sat up on the bed and said:

“You have nothing to be sorry about, Emma. It’s nothing that can’t wait."

You looked at Hunter, and he could read on your face that you felt bad, so he sent you a little nod.

“It’s okay. We need to work on some strategies today, and our boy Echo here is our biggest expert. But we have a whole day ahead of us. Have you slept well?” - he asked you.

“I slept very well,” - you answered. Better than in a long time." - you answered and touched Echo’s hand around your waist.

“Glad to hear that. That rain last night was not like any other I’ve ever seen. And I grew up on Kamino.” - Hunter said. “When you're ready, come outside. It’s actually sunny now." - he turned and left.

You were siting on the bed, your feet now touching the ground, and Echo hugged your waist, still lying in bed. He hugged you even closer and buried his head in your lap:

“I wish I could stay this way whole day” - he said.

You touched his head, gently.

"Me too” - you said, "but I think we should probably come outside. I don’t want to impose here more than necessary”

“You’re not, you’re welcome to stay as long as you want” - Echo said, and hugged you closer.

“I wish I could. But I should probably go and check on Denize. - you said. “I don’t want her to worry”.

Echo kissed your thigh and unwrapped his arms around you. You got up, found your clothes and went to the bathroom. The whole night felt magical. You felt so safe and comfortable in Echo’s arms, and it was difficult to find the strength and motivation to get up and leave. You felt great but you couldn’t help yourself thinking - what did all this mean? Why did it feel so good?

When you left the bathroom, refreshed and back in your clothes, you found the whole squad outside. Echo joined them, and his face brightened when he saw you again.

“Emma, this is Crosshair and Tech” - he introduced you to the two troopers you haven’t met before, and who were sound asleep last night when you arrived.

“Nice to meet you” - you greeted them. The taller one with a crosshair tattooed across his right eye slightly nodded, but kept looking at you intensely, and the trooper with the glasses smiled politely. Hunter offered you a ration bar, and you realised in that moment, that this was what they were living on the entire time. Their breakfast, lunch and dinner. You wanted to do something for them while they were here, and repay them for their generous hospitality last night, so you had an idea:

“I really would like to stay” - you said and turned to Echo, whose smiling eyes never left you for a moment, "but I should get going. I’d like to invite you all to a dinner tonight at my place. There will be some home-cooked food, specialities from my planet and it would be my honour if you’d be my guests. What do you say? - you looked over at Hunter, and he nodded:

“That’s not an offer we get that often, Emma, so yes! Of course! We’d love to!”

“We’ll be there” - Echo said and smiled and came closer to you one step. Wrecker sent you thumbs up.

“Great! I live right by the market, the tall blue house right at the entrance - you cannot miss it!” - you said.

"We’ll be there, Emma. Thank you” - Echo replied, and the other troopers seemed to have liked that idea as well.

“I’m looking forward to it” - you said. "I really should get going now” - you turned to Echo. Echo nodded.

“I’ll walk you a bit” - he said, but you didn’t want to take much more of his time, and you shook your head and came closer to him.

“It’s okay, don’t worry. They need you now. I’ll see you tonight” - you said and smiled, and saw that Echo was almost about to kiss you and he restrained himself in the last moment, which made you smile even wider.

“Okay then, I’ll be counting the moments till I see you again tonight, Emma” - he said.

“Me too” - you replied and turned to the other troopers:

“Nice meeting you all. See you tonight”

They waived back and you walked home thinking about what you’ll cook for them and how much you were looking forward to host them and return the hospitality.

—

Echo lifted his head and saw Hunter at the ship’s entrance. He saw it in his eyes immediately. He felt the ground open under him.

"We’ve been called up. We have a new mission” - Hunter said, not removing his eyes from Echo. Other troopers got up immediately, but Echo stayed frozen. Hunter came closer to him:

“I can give you an hour” - he said quietly.

——

You managed to get all the ingredients at the marked, everything you needed for a nice meal you were planning to prepare tonight. Denize was working at your stand, and you came home earlier to start preparing and cooking. Your thoughts were still full of Echo, you could still feel his hugs all over your body, and you couldn’t get those kisses out of your mind. All of a sudden there was a loud knock at your door, the emergency of which almost scared you.

You came closer to the door, almost hesitating to open it, and then you heard Echo’s voice:

“Emma?”.

You jumped, and opened the door, and you saw him. His eyes told you immediately something was terribly wrong. He looked flushed, almost out of breath.

“Echo, what… what happened?” - you asked.

“We’ve been called up. We’re leaving in an hour” he said. You felt like someone punched you in stomach, real hard, and all the air left you lungs.

“What…how..” - was all you managed to say and you felt dizzy and like you were going to collapse. You felt your knees were going to give up and Echo saw that and he came one step closer and caught you. He held you tight around your waist, and you threw your arms around him. He held you, and walked inside, closing the door behind him. You both knew. There were no words left to say. This was the reality. He was a soldier, and this was what his purpose was. He’ll be leaving. He’ll always be leaving. It was up to you to find those moments, those precious moments, and to treasure them, to make them yours and to make them matter. You felt the tears in your eyes, but you tried your best to hold them back. You lifted your head and you found his eyes. The look in his eyes was unmistakable. He was sorry. Sorry to put you through this, both of you. Sorry to make you feel this way, sorry for leaving. But you both knew that there was no time for that - none of that would or should ruin your moment. Your hour. You had an hour, and you could pack an entire galaxy of happiness and love in that hour. You pressed your lips against his, and you kissed him passionately. You drew him closer to you, and he kissed you back, his arms around your waist. You kept pulling him closer to you, your hands started exploring his body, going down from his shoulders, and down and up his arms - he pulled away from the kiss for a moment, and looked you close in the eyes:

“Are you sure?” - he whispered.

You nodded, holding back those tears as hard as you could - and nothing else was needed. He kissed you again, and hugged you so tight that he lifted you from the ground. You threw your arms and your legs around him, and he walked to the nearest bed and gently put you down. He was kissing your neck, while he started unbuttoning your shirt. You unhooked your bra, and threw it on the ground together with your shirt. His eyes widened at the sight of your breasts and the way he looked at you melted your heart. You hugged him closer, and he kissed your neck again, and then started slowly going down. His lips were soon on your left nipple, while his fingers caressed and teased the right one.

He slowly moved his kisses onto your stomach, and started pulling your pants down. You lifted your hips to help him, and soon you were left just in your panties. He pulled away from you for a second, and once again looked at you in awe. You saw that he was savouring that moment, and you let him, your body already flushed and hot with the desire for him.

“You are so beautiful” - was everything he managed to say, before his lips were back on your body, kissing your lower stomach and moving further down. He lifted your knees slightly, and spread your legs and then he planted a gentle kiss on your clit through your underwear. You felt the heat gather up in your stomach and slowly started spreading to your whole body. He continued to tease you, as he gently bit your clit feeling it becoming firmer against your panties.

“Echo!" - you moaned, and he pulled your panties down, caressing your thighs.

I want to make you feel good… tell me how this feels." - he whispered, and touched your folds, massaging them, teasing your entrance. You arched your back as he put his thumb gently on your clit.

"Oh, Echo…." - was everything you managed to say, and his tongue was already on your clit, first almost shyly and gently, and then moving with more speed and more pressure. You moved your fingers across his head, trying to grab onto something, and you moaned loudly. Echo’s hand was holding your hips firmly, as his tongue was gently exploring your clit, your folds and then teased your entrance. You were already almost out of breath, you felt your pulse elevate as he buried his tongue deep inside you. You arched your back and dug your nails in his head - you thought that you must have hurt him, but Echo didn’t react in any way - he continued to move his tongue in and out of you, while gently massaging your clit with his thumb.

You couldn’t control yourself any longer and your moans became louder. All you could think of in that moment is feeling Echo inside you, giving him this incredible feeling back, sharing it with him.

“Echo… Echo…” you barely managed to speak.

He lifted his head and looked at you, his mouth and chin completely soaked in your juices.

“Are you okay?” - he almost looked concerned.

You took a few deep breaths, trying to compose yourself:

“I’m more than okay, my love, this is incredible. But I want to feel you inside me now, I want it so much!” you said in one breath.

Echo smiled, and extended his arm to touch your cheek.

“Anything you want, sweet one. You taste incredible, I could keep doing this for hours...”

You lifted your head and you supported yourself on your elbows.

“Echo…” - you said, and he kept looking at you, his eyes soft. You wanted to tell him how much he meant to you, even though you’ve only known him for such a short time. It felt like you were meant to meet each other, it felt like there was nowhere else to be in this moment, but together.

You sat up and you moved closer to him. Your hands started exploring his amour, but you couldn’t figure it out - where to begin? Which part to take off first - and how?

“Can you help me?” - you said. “How does a girl ever take this thing off a soldier?”

Echo smiled. You felt that he was hesitating for a moment - you knew he wanted you, but you wanted to wipe away any insecurity he might have had.

“Echo…. I want you like I’ve never wanted anyone! I want to feel your body, I want to feel your skin on mine - please”

Echo’s closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, you saw a desire you haven’t seen before. His eyes narrowed and darkened, his lips parted slightly, and he took your hand that moments ago was exploring his armour and kissed it. He moved away from you, got up, and stood still for a moment. He then proceeded removing his arm pieces, first a part on his cybernetic arm, and then from his other arm, his chest piece, his kama, and his leg armour. Everything was taking time, and you savoured every moment, until he was left only in his tight black shirt and pants. He stood like that for a moment, looking slightly vulnerable, and you got up and came closer to him. You could see a prominent bulge in his pants, waiting, begging to be released.

“I can take it from here - you whispered in his ear, and he smiled:

“Please do” - he said, his eyes fixed on you.

You let your hand slip to his stomach and further down, and you felt his erection. You gently cupped his cock through his blacks and gave it a gentle squeeze. Echo closed his eyes and let a quiet moan. You moved your hand up, and started pulling his pants down. You could feel that Echo’s body slightly stiffened and you guessed it was because you were going to see his legs for the first time. You knelt in front of him, and he looked at you, but you could see that he trusted you, and you smiled. You pulled his pants down and released his hard cock. You touched it and Echo moaned again. You stroked it a few times, and started pulling his pants further down. Reaching his knees and pulling them all the way to the floor, you could for the first time see his cybernetic legs. They started just above both of his knees and they were beautiful and elegant. They made him look tough and unique. You looked up and you caught Echo’s eyes, looking, searching for your reaction. You smiled.

“You’re so beautiful. Even more beautiful then I knew”

As soon as you said that, Echo knelt as well and took your head in his hands. He kissed you passionately, once again, one of those kisses that made you knees weak, and he felt it and he gently laid you down on the floor. His hand once again started exploring your body, first your breasts and then it wandered down to your pussy and his middle finger started teasing your clit again. You moaned into his mouth and he speeded up his movement. He then slipped his finger in your pussy and slightly bent it. You broke from his kiss to moan loudly, as he put his thumb on your clit and added his index finger inside you. He kept doing that for a while and it sent you to the edge once again, when he moved his lips closer to your ear:

“I want to be inside you so bad, sweet one” - he whispered.

Your body was so hot and flushed from Echo’s fingers in your pussy and your clit, and you were already panting, so all you managed to say was:

“Yes, Echo, please!”

As soon as you said that he removed his fingers and positioned himself at your entrance. You could feel his tip against your wet pussy and you impatiently moved your hips closer to him,. Echo smiled, caressed your hips and then entered you, slowly. You could feel him, every inch of him. He was so hard and you could feel his big cock entering you and stretching you and you threw your arms around him and let a loud moan. He kissed your neck repeatedly, and once he was finally in, he stayed that way for a few moments and then he pulled out completely, and slammed into you again, this time faster and harder. The sensation of his incredibly hard cock against your wetness sent you over the edge and you could feel your orgasm building again. You looked at Echo who moments ago was looking deep into your eyes, as he now closed his eyes shut and threw his head back, panting and quietly moaning, and you saw how good this felt for him.

“Baby, yes… Echo” - you kept repeating, and he buried his head back to your neck and started sucking on it, this time more hungrily and desperately. You scratched his back repeatedly, and you were sure that you were going to leave some deep marks there. You were together, finally, united in this incredible moment, you sweaty bodies moving in the same direction, to the same beat, your breathing synchronised, and your orgasms building up. His cock felt amazing, as he was moving inside and out first slowly, just sliding in and out, then moving faster, and then going slowly again. You could see he enjoyed that as well, and all you could do is encourage him to just take you, to do whatever he wanted, to have you whatever way he desired, as everything he did sent you to heaven. There was nothing else in that moment, just his warm body on yours, taste of his lips on yours, on your neck and on your nipples, his hand caressing your body, his sweat mixing with yours, and you didn’t need anything else in this galaxy. You were the happiest girl in the world and with that thought you opened your eyes and found his, the tip of his nose touching yours and you felt your orgasm washing over your entire body, as you lost yourself into his eyes. You hugged him tighter and screamed his name several times. He held you, never breaking the eye contact and he slowed his movements down for a few moments. You panted, out of your breath and he kissed you gently.

"Echo” - you said as you managed to catch your breath.

"Yes, my love” - he whispered.

“I want you to cum inside me” - you said and you looked him deep into his eyes again. He planted his lips on your again, and then moved them on your nipple as he slammed inside you, this time deeper than ever before. You arched your back slightly, and he held you now firmer, his teeth gently teasing your nipple, and his hips moving faster, his thrusts being firmer and harder. You could see by the way his entire body stiffened that he was close, you could feel his cock growing even harder inside you, till he growled, his release sending him to heaven. He was panting as he collapsed on top of you, and you threw your arms around him and you held him. You held him like you did last night in the rain, close and tight, you could feel his muscles relaxing one by one, he felt safe in your arms and you didn’t want to let go. He pulled out slowly, and you could feel his seed slowly leaking out of you. You stayed that way for few minutes, his weight on you, slightly crushing you, but you didn’t mind. You were united, together, intervened in every way and you knew that this moment now, and ever again, would be one of those most precious, rarest, purest of moments.

After a while, Echo peeled himself off of you, making you miss him right away.

He looked you in the eyes for several moments, and you could see in each others' eyes how happy you both were, how happy you made each other. You smiled, and he smiled back. You both knew. There were no words necessary.

Echo kissed you again, this time gently and slowly, and then he moved his lips to your ear:

“I’ll come back, my love! I promise!”

[fanfiction-artist-prototype]

❛ you can sleep over, it’ll be like when we were kids. ❜ Tenko/Tomura and Izuku, in an universe where they knew each other as kid (either because they're related or not, your choice)

Quick AU backstory: Tomura knows Izuku when they were kids, sees him with a bone breaking quirk at USJ after thinking he killed him like everyone else (bc AFO told him he did to completely isolate him) and basically decides 'no if Sensei would lie about that what else is he lying about' and starts to doubt him until eventually he leaves at Kamino and he goes to Izuku searching for refuge.

Inko is on a business trip.

--

Izuku is freaking out, just a little bit.

Maybe a lot.

In his defence; which he's going to need because All Might is going to kill him, Aizawa sensei is going to kill him and Kacchan - good god is Kacchan going to kill him when he realises that Tomura is Tenko - he didn't know his supposedly dead childhood friend/childhood pseudo older brother was alive, nor did he know he was All For One's protege.

If All Might didn't want situations like this he should have told Izuku about All For One sooner! Really, Izuku can't be responsible for this clerical error in the universe if he wasn't being given the right information. Also Tenko was supposed to dead.

The boy - teen- lying on his couch covered in dust, black goop and his own blood from where he straight up decayed the tracker out of himself, is very much alive. And very much Tenko.

Izuku would know those moles anywhere.

"You should... probably bandage that."

"What does it matter?" Tenko sounds so very, very tired, "It's just blood anyway."

Well, that's certainly a response.

"I mean," though the older boy isn't looking in his direction he can't help but gesticulate, "I don't really want to hand scrub blood out of the couch or explain to my mother why there's blood on her couch."

"CRAP I FORGOT ABOUT AUNTIE!"

Faster than he's seen the boy the past few times they'd crossed paths, the older boy throws himself off of the couch, tripping over himself and going sprawling against the wooden floorboards instead.

His hair is just tickling Izuku's shoes and though he wants to rush and help the already injured boy up he feels somewhat numb, given everything thats already happened, "Please don't bleed into the flat below us. We already owe them for water damage I don't want to explain blood as well."

His answer is a groan, but slowly Tenko pulls himself up onto his knees and stays there, hands tentatively coming up to brush his hair out of his face. He wants to ask if decay works on hair, but he supposes if it works on skin then it would work on hair.

Izuku also wants to know how Tenko got a quirk when he was quirkless! But then again, he supposes it was most likely All For One.

"You can sleep over, it'll be like when we were kids!" he explains, and Tenko makes a disgruntled noise once more.

But it's an improvement and soon enough he's allowed to grasp Tenko's pinkie finger and lead him into the Bathroom where he's once more allowed to tentatively clean and bandage the injured midsection.

He feels his stomach twist at the damage Tenko had caused to himself, but given the state of his hands he can't say much, he's only glad that all that's left are aches rather than any kind of stabbing pain like there had been when he had the casts.

[bluegalaxygirl]

Hii, I have a request

Can you please write for the batchers being dads to the reader? It can be anything I just love them so much and think you would do it justice

Of cause I'll do a before and after order 66. I hope that's OK. Also echos is gonna be a bit different most likely you will be a teen like 12 to 18 while the other clones it quite open what age you are.

Hunter:

----- Before -----

🔴 He's very strict but for a good reason. You are his only child and he would do anything to protect you.

🔴He was scared that is anyone found out about you they would kill you or use you in experiments so he didn't tell anyone.

🔴On his days off he would go to see you and spend time with you. He would train you in knife fighting and self defence.

🔴Sometimes you felt the training to be more like a life or death situation than bonding time but you loved him anyway. Any time with your farther was well spent.

🔴The batch would ask questions about where he's been but he would ignore the questions knowing anything he said about it even a lie might give you away.

🔴Crosshair would often tease him about his time off. Often saying things like

🔴"he went to see his lover. Oh how sweet the star crossed lovers are"

🔴Hunter would just roll his eyes and get on with the job. The teasing was normal to him.

----- After -----

🔴After fleeing from crosshair his mind went straight to you. His child was in danger and he knew he had too come and get you

🔴Telling the others about you was hard but seeing omega light up at hearing about another child made him feel better

🔴They got there just in time. The home you stayed in was burning to the ground and you were on the run, the empire hunting you.

🔴Hunter manged to get you away and introduce you to the rest of the family. You had heard of them and took quite well to the members of the batch especially omega

🔴Hunter before more protective of you. When going onto a planet he would either make you stay on the ship or stick to him like glue

🔴Over time he started to calm down seeing how you can handle yourself in a fight. He was proud of you and one time sat down with you and told you that.

🔴He would try his best to talk to you instead of demanding you to do something like he would with his brothers. He was trying to be more of a full time farther to you than a leader

🔴Heart to hearts was something you two would often have especially after a stressful Situation. You would sit togeather often late at night with a hot drink and just talk. It was a peaceful moment you both cherished.

Tech:

----- Before -----

🟠 He's not good with kids so when he found out he had one he panickled.

🟠Emotion wasn't his strong point so didn't know how to feel about it so he turned to the only thing he knew... Logic

🟠It took him A few hours to figure things out but once he did he realised that he wanted you around

🟠The only people he told about you were Hunter and echo. He knew he could trust the two to keep a secret and look after you if anything happened to him

🟠When he got to spend time with you he would teach you new things, one day it could be about the planet he resently went to and the next maths

🟠You could talk to him about any problem you had and he would help solve it even if it was by being a bit to blunt about things but in a way you found that comferting

🟠After every mission he would write a letter about his trip and things he wanted to tell you or say to you but he'd never send them. He would put them in an envelope and hid them

🟠 The letters were for if he died. He knew better than anyone that he could die in battle and he didn't want to just leave you not knowing how much he cared for you. He told hunter and echo if anything happened to him take the letters to his child.

----- After -----

🟠The escape was rough on all of them but he knew where he wanted to go. He flew right to where your home was. He found out before he left that the empire knew about you

🟠Strangely enough hunter and echo didn't ask where they were going and he appreciated that. He just wanted to get you away from any harm

🟠Thankfully you were fine and happily joined your farther on the ship meeting the others that you knew all about thanks to your farthers stories.

🟠 Tech had to explain to wrecker about you quite quickly before pulling you away saying he needed your help with the ship

🟠Tech would often have you fixing the ship along with echo and you would often have to remind him that something are impotent to fix than others.

🟠Spending a few days with your farther was great but now your stuck on a ship with him for a few months now and you two had gotten into a lot of fights. Mainly over him not understanding your emotions and him. Being too logical

🟠 Sometimes you would go days without talking to each other and it was echo who pointed out what tech should do

🟠One day he sat down with you and pulled out a large box handing it to you. It was the letters he wrote. He told you how important you are to him and how he's sorry he might not show that. You two made up and he tried his hardest to show more emotion around you than logic.

Wrecker:

----- Before -----

🟡 The fun loving dad. He loves you more than life and even made you your own Lula doll.

🟡He told his brother about you right away and they were shocked. He was so happy he wanted to tell everyone but hunter and tech told him not to

🟡After they explained to him why he became worried for you and kept you away from Kamino.

🟡Any time he had off he would come and see you dragging one of his brothers along to see you. He would say family is everything so you had to know them.

🟡He would also bring you toys to play with even if you were too old for that stuff and you would make him things which he would keep hidden under his bed back home.

🟡Life was more fun with him around. You'd get piggy back rides, play games, tell stories and you both cryed when ever he had to leave

🟡When you were old enough he would start teaching you things he knew. He wanted you to be strong so no one would mess with you when he was away.

🟡He would teach you self defence and how dombs work but thanks to the people you lived with he would never be aloud to bring one for you to see. He would have to draw it out

----- After -----

🟡You were the first thing on his mind when things went wrong. He was pacing in the prison cell muttering to himself and getting angry.

🟡Hunter was the one to calm him down and tell him that you will be fine and that when they get out of here they will go get you first.

🟡The fight out hurt his head and heart. Crosshair had betrayed him and since crosshair knew about you that means your in danger.

🟡Wrecker got to you first and begged you to come with him. You were scared but you trusted him and agreed

🟡Over time you noticed a change in your farther. He kept getting beaten a lot and he kept holding his head. You started to worry and tried to take care of him along with omega

🟡You, wrecker and omega were like the three musketeers, ready for a fight and had a good laugh. You felt whole now that you were with your real family but that didn't stop you from worrying about your farther

🟡Learning about the chip scared you but what scared you more was the thought of your farther trying to kill you. You kept a close eye on your farther until it was time.

🟡He scared you when he changed. He tried to kill his brothers and then went after you and omega. It it wern't for Rex you might be dead. After he got the chip out he apologised and you hugged him. Just happy he's back to nornal

Crosshair:

----- Before -----

🟣He didn't know what to do with you. He treated you like you were glass. He never hugged you and it hurt.

🟣You became more angry and felt left out. When he would come to see you it was very rare and it was mainly filled with silence. You'd asked the odd question and talk about what happened while he was gone but he wouldn't say much

🟣On his day off he got a call from one of the people looking after you. You had gotten into a fight and were hurt but the other kid was worse. He came down as soon as he could.

🟣You expected him to be mad at you, to yell but he didn't. He ran over to you and looked you over. Seeing your busted lip and bruised arms made him mad and worried and for the first time he hugged you

🟣You cryed for the first time infront of him and hugged him back. He asked you all kinds of questions and after you told him what happened and how the kid had been picking on you for months he got madder but not at you

🟣He took you away from that place and brought you to kamino. They let you stay but under a few conditions. They wanted to draw some blood and you had to help out around the base.

🟣After agreeing and getting your own room crosshair introduced you to his brothers. They welcomed you with open arms and for once you saw your farther smile.

🟣He became very open with you. Telling you Things he would never tell his brothers and teaching you how to use a rifle.

----- After -----

🟣The shift in your farthers attatude scared you. He stopped confiding in you and when ever you asked him Something he would ignore you or just glare.

🟣When the rest of the batch left with omega you had the chance to go with them but you couldn't leave your farther behind.

🟣The empire kept you safe and away from your farther. You faught them on it but soon found out crosshair didn't want you around. It broke you but you couldn't do anything about it

🟣Crosshair saw you as a mistake thanks to the chip but once it was taken out his mind was clear. He got out of bed despite the doctors telling him not to and went Off to find you

🟣Once he found you he told you how sorry he was and explained everything. You didn't trust him right away but over time his actions showed he wanted you around and he wanted to be your farther

🟣What the chip made him do to you broke his heart and he did everything he could to make it up to you even taking you on missions when you asked to go.

🟣He kept you close so no one could touch you, he didn't fully trust his new crew so never left you alone with them

🟣He kept training you and talked to you about the desition he has made and if you were OK with it. He wanted you to stay but he didn't want to make you feel tapped.

Echo:

----- Before -----

🔵 You were born before he got blown up at the citadel and the kaminoans found out about you quite quickly. They took you to kamino where they studied you for years and raised you.

🔵You had no idea who your farther was until you met fives. He found out about you while looking into the chip and managed to talk to you

🔵From that day you decided you had to find your farther, something didn't sit right with you, it felt off the way he died and for some reason you felt he was alive.

🔵Your efforts paid off and the bad batch and the 501st found him. You went to talk with him and he was shocked but took it quite well. He told you about your mother and was happy to have you around

🔵Life was no where near normal for him now. Not only did he have cybernetic parts but a teen to look after. He took to it quite well though acting more like a mum than a dad on occasions.

🔵He refused to let the kaminoans do anymore tests on you and kept you close to him. You helped him when he needed it and he helped you.

🔵Education was very inportant to echo so he made sure you studied and did well in classes. He didn't want you to be like him, a soilder. He wanted you to have a real life outside of war.

🔵He would have to leave you to go on missions but he would make sure you were looked after. One of his many brothers or shaak ti would look after you

----- After -----

🔵After the ship left kamino for the last time everyone could take a breath. Echo made sure you were OK and told you things will get better

🔵He felt like he failed you. You were supposed to have a better life and now you were on the run with no home.

🔵He started to get more grumpy and snappy but would always apologise to you if he directed it at you.

🔵He tried to hide his worries and conserns from you but one day it all spilled out while you two were alone. He was surprised to find you being more of an adult and calming him down.

🔵He realised he raised you right despite the early learnings from the kaminoins and knew you could flourish in any situation

🔵He often asks for your help around the ship. He's one man, tech doesn't always help and hed be dead if he let wrecker help.

🔵More and more you would cone out on missions with them. He knew you could help but also he didn't want to lose sight of you. He was scared of losing you

🔵While on missions he would be quite bossy with you. Telling you what to do and where to go. It annoyed you at first until you realised he was doing all of it to keep you safe.

[that-one-weeb-but-starwars]

For the dead| Gregor

Note: YAY I FRICKEN LOVE THE DAY OF THE DEAD- AHHH

also....part 2?

Warnings: none,

Reader: male

"I got new hands for you!"

"yeah! Yeah send em back!" Y/n shouted not bothering to turn his head from his task of washing dishes.

Gregor was nudged forward by Cid, he making his way back, still dressed cladly in his trooper armor.

"Uh. Y/n?" He questioned.

Y/n turned his head, "That's me."

There was an awkward silence, "so..."

"Oh right!" Y/n spoke, "just grab a sponge and a bucket and start scrubbing something."

"That's it?" Gregor asked, his voice staying higher as he talked.

Y/n nodded, "this kitchen's filthy, I offered to help Cid start selling meals here, so it needs to be cleaned before I even start."

Gregor nodded, great. He went from slave of the republic to slave of Cid. Y/n returned to scrubbing dishes as Gregor grabbed a bucket and walked away, Y/n, had already scrubbed seemingly everything in his vicinity.

"Anything in the back?" Gregor questioned voice cracking slightly.

"Yep. Haven't touched it yet." Y/n smiled, "just through the doorway."

Gregor walked through the kitchen, turning into the doorway he almost wanted to barf, he found a whole new respect for Y/n and barely knew the guy, the place stunk of rotten food and garbage.

Had it always been this bad?

Pulling up his sleeves and taking off his gloves, not willing to get his own pair of black gloves dirty he started on the cracked walls, he spent the next hour cleaning one wall.

Getting down to the trim in the corner there was a crack in the wall, small his fingernail it held one flower, bright and eye-catching in color, an orange color, and odd color not seen much around the galaxy.

"Wonder how long you've survived here." He commented, to no one in particular cleaning around the flower carefully. Starting the next wall his sponge split in half, splatting him in the chest plate.

"Damn it." He cursed, tossing the broken sponge in the murky water, "probably should change this all out anyways."

Walking back to Y/n was to ask for a replacement sponge he was greeted with a dark room, a soft glow of orange and yellow at the end of the hall.

"Y/n?" Gregor called, bucket in hand he walked towards the light he ended up at an alter, shelves built like a small pyramid that hung a bit higher than waist height on the wall.

Seeing some of the pictures he picked up one, "This...is this Fives?" He questioned remembering the trooper from way back when.

The shelves were decorated with pictures and flowers, small fruits and drinks, everything brought together with lit candles. That's when he realized, the flowers adorning the altar were the same ones that grew out the walls trim.

Others he didn't realize, some other troopers, sure. A drawn photo of 99 the old defective clone who had been put on cleaning duty on Kamino.

"Hey-"

The sudden noise started him, causing him to jolt forward as he turned to face the voice. Bumping into the shelves as it came tumbling down. Gregor trying to catch it but to no avail, the crashing of glass echoing as it hit the floor in the once spotless kitchen. The two winced at the sound.

"Sorry..." he apologized, bucket still one hand looking back prepared to be yelled at.

"Hey. It's okay." Y/n spoke, "I have more frames and candle glasses."

Y/n quickly sorting through the mess for the photos in the hope they weren't ruined by the spill of food or drink.

"The candles-"

"Battery operated." Y/n spoke, "Im not that stupid."

Gregor set the bucket down, quickly helping, "I'm sorry- I really am-" his voice cracking with nervousness as Y/n started putting things on the counter in a hurry.

"It's okay, really." Y/n told him, "I should have moved it anyways"

Gregor rubbed the back of his neck putting wrecked flowers on the counter. Y/n grabbing a broom and cleaning all the food and glass up, Gregor holding the dustpan as they then cleaned up the spills. It was when they threw anything deemed ineligible for reuse did Gregor take a look back at the structure, it obviously had importance, and he felt bad he had ruined it.

"I shouldn't be asking questions. Not after what I did-" Gregor started, "but what's it for?"

"Hm?" Y/n questioned looking to the side, "oh. A cultural thing,"

Y/n had answered so casually, "Oh, " Gregor replied.

Y/n nodded, "To honor ones that passed on, I, unfortunately, didn't know my parents or family but made a family with those clones I saw drop you off, and some others, passed on friends of my own and the boys put some up there, I helped Omega draw 99 I believe was his name since she didn't have a photo."

"So, anyone can do it?" Gregor questioned.

"Mhm, I don't see why not, as long as you are respectful about it I don't see a problem." Y/n answered, "Thinking about doing it?"

"Me? Oh! Oh no!" He spoke, "Im sure I upset the ones passed on after, well that."

Y/n chuckled, "Im sure they're laughing at it wherever they are, I was laughing at it a bit, how jumpy you were."

"That bad?" Gregor chuckled.

"As high as a loth cat," He spoke now picking through the flowers, some disheveled by impact, Gregor helping in picking out the ruined ones.

"You have a place to sleep?" Y/n questioned.

"Huh?" Gregor questioned, "Uh no, no I don't."

"Wanna stay at my place? I have Menudo in my crockpot at home." Y/n told.

"Men- what?" Gregor asked, he had never heard of such a dish, yet he was more shocked that he had just ruined Y/n's important display and now was being asked if he wanted to sleep and eat at Y/n's home.

"Food, soup to be exact" Y/n spoke with a smile.

"I uh," Gregor tried to start, having trouble with the kindness, he was just recently shot at by some of his closest brothers, "Y-yeah I'd like that."

Y/n smiled, "Trust me, I think you'll like it, Ordo Mantell can get chilly from time to time."

Gregor nodded as Y/n tied up the flowers, bagging the broken ones.

"You're taking them?" Gregor asked, Y/n nodding.

"Yeah I never let my flowers go to waste, usually I make potpourri when the petals have been sundried." Y/n told, "It goes right back to them though, I always have a few vases full behind or between pictures for good luck, if I have too much- usually all the time- the neighboring old woman loves to have them and talk about them with her lady friends."

"You're full of surprises." Gregor commented.

Y/n smiled smally, "Well, I suppose I have a few more up my sleeve, now, shall we? We have about a twenty minute walk."

Gregor nodded Y/n had checked once more that everything was set out to dry, especially the pictures and then they were on there way. Gregor following Y/n like a puppy with his mother. The walk to his apartment was quiet, Y/n stopping a few times at small stands, Gregor didn't pay much attention to it, Y/n picking up some fruit- but what he did was pay attention too was the sigh in Y/n's voice when Vendors said they were out of what both the vendor and Y/n called Marigolds.

"Okay, tomorrow?" Y/n questioned.

"Early, but they're rare, especially out here, I know you want them for culture purposes Y/n but I have people paying double credit for them, my families in a tight spot, so If you can get here before those richins can, you can have them." The girl spoke, "I'm sorry chick."

Y/n sighed, "Okay thank you."

The woman nodded as Y/n had been turned away for the fourth time.

"Come on it's just up ahead." Y/n spoke gesturing across the street.

"Okay."

They walked across the street and into the store, "Afternoon,"

"Afternoon," The old woman smiled, "Ah! You brought a man home! A handsome one at that! Good for you!"

Y/n chuckled, Gregor rubbing the back of his neck flushetered.

"Gregor meet Mrs.Baker, Mrs.Baker Gregor." Y/n introduced.

"An honor mam." Gregor spoke.

"Not only is he a looker! He's a gentlemen!" She prasied, "Look at you!"

Y/n smiled, cheeks flustering shortly, it not going unnoticed by Gregor.

"And a man in uniform!"

"Goodnight Mrs.Baker!" Y/n spoke quickly, pulling Gregor through the small store to the back, "I'll have potpourri for you soon!"

"Your a dear you know that!" She called back as Y/n led Gregor to the steps, Y/n allowing gregor to go up first as they made it to the top of the stairs the door opened relieving a hallway.

"All the way up." Y/n spoke, "The attic."

"You lead the way," Gregor practically begged, Y/n nodded squeezing past him.

He smells good, was gregor's only thoughts as Y/n made it past him leading the way, up two more sets of stairs and up to a hatch, where he opened it.

"Watch yourself." Y/n told Gregor.

Gregor climbed the steep stairs following behind Y/n. It was surpignsly spacious, Y/n's little kitchenette behind where he climbed up from, a nice handmade run covered the floor in front of Gregor. Y/n walked over to his desk, that a bit more fancy as it was built into the angled ceiling a window as light source directly above, he set the bags down as a took cat come out from the seat of the chair.

"hey there." Y/n smiled rubbing it's head, "Meet Alley, Alley meet Gregor."

The tooka cat stay still, enjoying Y/n's pats on the head.

"Like an alley way?" Gregor questioned Y/n nodded.

"It's where I found him after all," Y/n commented, "Oh let me get you food you must be hungry."

Gregor finally made it up all the way after semi gazing at the place, closing the hatch below him. Y/n walking over to the kitchenette as he opened the crockpot lid. Gregor now level with the ground looked around, Y/n's "bed" was more of a large, humongous bean bag, easy to push and move as he needed and was convinet. He had a small table besides it with some candles, wax melted and dripping onto the table. Scanning around he seeing the center window, circular and big in shape, with shelves on the walls surrounding it.

"Is this...what I seen earlier?"

Gregor was infauted to say less, the bright colors of the marigolds contrasted to the cool colors of the dark night of Ordo mantel with the city lights crashing against it. Real candles that once stood tall were now wilted away and dripping wax but still lit. Images again at the center of everything accompanied by food and drink. It was beautiful, but sad, how something which could be so painful could be so beautiful.

"It's...amazing." Gregor commented, Y/n watching him from across the room look with infatuation and awe, Gregor turned back towards Y/n who smiled smally.

"I tried my hardest." Y/n smiled, "I do every year."

"What is this?" Gregor questioned, "All this? For someone who will never see it?"

Y/n's smile went to a flat line, but then he thought- looked at Gregor's armor, that was right. He was a clone, the cloest thing to a properal r memorial or burial was there helmet on a pike.

"That's what's the marigolds are for," Y/n told walking forward next to him, "They guide the souls back to us. I unfortantly can't make much of a path, so I gather as many as I can in one place, it's one way my planet use to honor the dead."

"Use to?" Gregor questioned.

"My home plant went dormaint." Y/n told him, "I try and keep as much as I can alive still."

Gregor frowned, looking away, "I- I'm sorry, you allow me into your house and-"

"No, No it's okay." Y/n spoke, "I understand wanting to know."

Y/n lightly grabbed Gregor's chin, with a light push of his finger's Gregor was looking back at Y/n, eye's catching all too long. Y/n pulled his hand away slowly, clearing his throat only the slightest.

"I'll ask you a question then," Y/n spoke, Gregor nodding.

"You're voice, it cracks and it's higher than than other clones." Y/n commented, "Any reason why?"

Gregor shook his head no, "Suppsoe it was always my little quirk." he chuckled, Y/n smiling, they catching each other's gaze again, but for longer, eyes lingering only one anothers, unlike Gregor, Y/n's were dark dark brown, almost black, with a soft highlight of pastel brown, despite there dark color they were warm and welcoming.

"I," Y/n spoke, "Lets eat?"

[gaeasun]

Please don't feel like you have to do this but I saw your previous recommended fic list and was wondering if you had any recommendations for Echo-centric Bad Batch fics. Or just good fics with Echo in the them.

Well I very much want to answer this! I've found some epic Echo fics lately, though some will overlap with the last list.

Finished:

Five Times Echo Cuddles (Or Is Cuddled By) His Teammates by @chiafett

Probably one of my favorite lil Echo fics. The title says it all.

Good Grief by hanged_albatross on AO3

The Bad Batch has always walk the line between life and death- but this time they might have gotten a bit to close for comfort.

When All Is Said And Done by hanged_albatross on AO3

A year after Order 66, The Bad Batch finds themselves cornered by the threat of the Empire and the need to take increasingly dangerous jobs to stay afloat. Just as the team seems to be reaching their breaking point, a job is offered that appears to good to be true. But when it all goes wrong, the Bad Batch must fight to survive in a galaxy turned against them and save one of their own.

When You Let It Leave, It Can’t Hurt You by @ameanstoanendor

The Bad Batchers find a holopic in their barracks when they return to Kamino after a mission. It holds nothing but bittersweet and painful memories for Echo, but he eventually learns that just because it hurts doesn’t mean he should forget.

The Time Passed In Exile by @letitrainathousandflames

This ones a bit sad and mature, so check the warnings, but also a wonderful read.

Having their deaths faked and their identities taken, ARC Trooper Fives and the clone trooper Dogma try to live in exile on a planet of the Outer Rim, away from everything they've ever known and trapped to a lonely existence. Things change when Rex brings another runaway trooper to live with them, Echo, a close brother to Fives' whom everyone had believed to be dead. The three clone troopers are broken and scarred by the war. Will they be able to help each other back in their feet? What is it of a soldier who cannot fight anymore?

Voices Long Gone by @lifeofclonewars

Fives' journey through hearing Echo mimic Cutup's accent following Rishi, and then some.

Rishi Rescue by @jgvfhl

A tantalizing transmission sends Fives and Echo back to Rishi Moon with the slim hope they're not the only members of Domino Squad who survived the invasion.

Reverberate by lildropofmagic on AO3

“Sometimes, sounds resonate in a really positive way - like when I heard you singing just now.” She grins at his stunned expression. “That’s why I came in here - to find the source of the vibration. My montrals really like your voice, Echo.”

OR A chance discovery helps Echo and Ahsoka find their places in the 501st Legion and weather the storms that come their way.

In Progress

In the Shadow of His Brothers by @laz-laz-ace-pilot.

One thing that makes this fic especially awesome and rare is Echo is alone in this. No Fives, no Bad Batch. Echo strikes out on his own to figure out how to free his brothers from the grip of the Empire.

Fate is Overrated, Anyway by @cyberpunksamurai

I love this fic and I'm glad its getting the attention it deserves.

"Having met up with Rex and Ahsoka, the Bad Batch and Echo have just one goal: survive. Fives also has one goal - remember.

AKA the one where Fives gets Winter Soldiered."

Nuhoyi, Vod'ika [Sleep, Dear Brother] by @lifeofclonewars

A whole bunch of awwww.

Or, 7 Times Someone Found Fives and Echo Asleep, 2 Times Fives or Echo were By Themselves, and 1 Time They were Reunited