Btw I’ve made a decision that I’ll no longer be posting my fics on Wattpad. I’m not deleting my account or any of the stuff I’ve written on there, so don’t panic, but from now on I’m posting everything (possibly including original stories? I haven’t thought about that yet) on here, and extra long fics are gonna be broken into chapters (like IDWBF) and posted sequentially as I finish them 💖
But also, now I have a question, specifically for the folks following me for my Star Wars/Clone Wars fics;
I have a long fic (mostly Echo and Fives focused) that I’m thinking abt posting soon. What weekday should chapters go up?
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
idc/not interested in SW but still wanna click smth
Voting ended onJun 2
Depending on the responses, I’ll finally be starting to get Returning Echoes (<- ‼️ tag contains snippets & spoilers ‼️) posted sometime next week!!! 🤭
Combining a few different ideas to make this part of Returning Echoes as emotionally damaging as possible (✌️🫠), my personal headcanon of Echo being in a much, much worse state when Rex and the others finally find him, and @rat-talks-about-starwars’s idea of Echo calling out for Fives when he’s found (Fives lives in this au, but he’s not present at the moment, and with the state he’s in the fact that he’s calling out for Fives when he isn’t there still just makes the situation a million times more heartwrenching)
Happy Friday everyone!! And happy new chapter of Returning Echoes day!!!
WARNINGS: canon-typical violence, major character “death”, grief
Returning Echoes
Chapter 1
“ECHO!”
Fives had to have shouted as loudly as he possibly could, but he still felt his voice being drowned out by the explosion.
It all happened way too fast, but also in slow motion. Echo ran, grabbed a shield off a droid that had been shot down, tried to run up the ramp into the ship. A shot had fired. The ship exploded in a ball of flames.
For a second Fives hadn’t even realized what happened. His brain waited for Echo to appear by his side again, to grab his arm, to tell him to run.
But it was Cody’s hand that grabbed onto him and pulled him away, even as he hesitated, even as he struggled to break free. Cody wasn’t letting him do that.
Fives retreated with the others, his legs like jelly, constantly glancing over his shoulder, constantly feeling like he’d forgotten something back there.
The full weight of what had happened didn’t fully hit Fives until they were back on Coruscant.
Exhausted, he made to climb into his bunk in the barracks, only to freeze in place when he saw the drawings on the wall he and Echo had made there when they’d first arrived - the line Echo had drawn down the centre in an attempt to divide the already-too-small bed in half, because apparently Fives took up too much space. The silly doodles they’d made of each other and of other Clones they knew, which they’d laughed so hard over they’d gotten a warning from Rex about making too much noise. The tiny corner dedicated to Hevy, Droidbait, and Cutup’s names with a small heart next to them.
Only then did Fives finally realize the full extent of his anguish.
Echo was gone.
He was really gone.
His legs buckled beneath him, and he fell to his knees, sobbing.
There was no point in being quiet, no one else was here. Everyone seemed to be giving him space but he didn’t want space right now, he wanted to be surrounded by his brothers, for them to tell him it was alright.
He wanted Echo back.
Fives had no idea how long he stayed there, curled on the cold, hard floor on his side, a small pool of tears and snot slowly forming at his cheek.
Until, finally, someone came for him.
“Fives?”
Lionel’s voice was soft, trembling, and Fives didn’t have to look to see the tears on their face, to know that they’d been crying too.
“Sibling...” Fives croaked, throat stinging.
Their footsteps quickly crossed the room, their urgency apparent in their rapid pace, and suddenly they had knelt beside Fives on the floor, their hand resting on his shoulder.
Fives hadn’t wanted to be alone before, but now he found himself almost wishing Lionel would leave.
“I am so… sorry.” Lionel murmured, the agony in their eyes reflecting Fives’ own as their hand moved to his damp cheek.
Fives squeezed his eyes shut to try and keep the second wave of tears at bay.
“Anakin told me everything,” Lionel went on.
“You’re not supposed to see me cry,” Fives rasped, batting their hand away and covering his face, “it’s part of our training.”
Lionel shook their head sorrowfully.
“Just do it anyway,” they sniffed, “I don’t care. Neither should you.”
That was all it took for Fives to break down for the second time that evening, and Lionel’s arms were immediately around him, lifting him off the floor holding him like they were doing everything in their power to keep him from falling apart. Even if it was far too late for that.
Echo was like a part of him, they were two halves of the same person, and without him… only half of Fives remained.
“I know, Fives,” Lionel rasped over his sobbing, sounding close to breaking down again themself as their fingers gently stroked through his hair, “I know, I know. I’m here for you, my friend. I’m not going anywhere.”
Three years later…
Tup was Fives’ best friend.
No, that wasn’t the truth - why the fuck would he lie to himself? He was much more than that, he might be the only person in the galaxy that Fives had become as close with as he had been with Echo.
He’d joined the 501st not long after the Citadel. At first Fives tried to keep his distance, simply acting as a mentor figure. He wasn’t sure what the feeling he got around Tup was, but he couldn’t shake it, and he didn’t like what it was doing to him.
He stumbled over his words, he felt hot when Tup looked at him or smiled or laughed near him, sometimes he caught himself staring at him from the opposite side of the room.
And then the realization had hit Fives all at once; he was in love.
No, no, that couldn’t be. He shouldn’t allow himself to move on, to be happy, without Echo. For the longest time, the two of them were all the other would ever need, Fives didn’t need to fall in love, with a Shiny who just happened to be cute.
It was too late.
Fives was already head over heels by the time he’d realized what was happening, and as time went on and he and Tup grew even closer, he started to hate that less and less.
Umbara had been a turning point in their relationship, that was the first time Tup had called what they had “love” - and of course he’d said it first, because Fives was a coward, and an idiot, and he still couldn’t bring himself to say the word without getting tongue-tied.
Regardless, he did everything and anything he could for Tup. He made him laugh after particularly harrowing battles. He held him when he cried. He listened. He watched. He knew practically everything there was to know about the man who had become the love of his life.
So he could easily tell when something was wrong.
And at first, that happened to be nothing. Tup really and truly was fine as they stormed the Separatist ship side by side that morning, mowing down droids one by one, blaster shot by blaster shot.
“Fives, look out!”
Fives barely had time to react before Tup’s slightly smaller weight slammed into him, knocking him to the ground and covering him as he fired on a battle droid that was still partially alive barely a metre from where he’d just been standing.
Fives huffed as Tup helped him up.
“Thanks, Tup,” he murmured as Tup helped him back to his feet, stopping short of using a pet name in front of so many other people - including General Tiplar and Tiplee, who, as far as Fives was aware, probably wouldn’t condone relationships between Clones. “I owe you one.”
He didn’t have to see Tup’s face to know he was smirking flirtatiously back at him.
“You owe me a lot more than one.” He teased, and Fives had to concentrate to keep his legs from buckling right then and there.
That was all normal. Maybe embarrassing, but normal. Tup was still fine. Or at least Fives had thought he’d been fine. Looking back, maybe he should’ve been paying more attention beforehand. Maybe that could’ve stopped all of this.
He first noticed something was off after General Skywalker had given him orders to take his choice of troopers with General Tiplar and the Clones under her command. The plan was to split into three groups, overwhelm the enemy.
Fives had immediately turned to Tup, and that was when he’d caught it. The slightest change in Tup’s posture. His shoulders were tense. He seemed to be shaking.
Was he nervous? Maybe he was remembering Umbara, and wary of being left under the command of someone who wasn’t General Skywalker.
Attempting to soothe him, Fives reached out a tentative hand.
“Hey,” he murmured, gently gripping Tup’s shoulder plate as he watched the younger Clone move his hand to his temple, “you okay?”
“Yeah…” Tup muttered, though he sounded uncertain, and it was clear he was grimacing under his helmet, “I’m fine, just… headache. C’mon, we gotta go.”
He took Fives’ hand from his shoulder, but entwined their fingers as he led him along after General Tiplar.
“Tup-” Fives began.
“I said I’m fine.” Tup cut him off, with a bit more of an edge to his tone than Fives was used to.
He must have visibly flinched, because Tup softened.
“Sorry,” he said softly, “I’m just… anxious. Let’s go.”
He didn’t let go of Fives’ hand, but he did turn to face General Tiplar, and Fives felt his grip tighten just slightly.
“Hey,” Fives repeated, moving closer to him, “it’ll be fine, Tup, we can trust her. This isn’t like Umbara.”
“I-I know…” Tup stammered, and Fives’ heart shattered at the tremor in his voice, “I know it’s not. I know.”
Fives didn’t want to let go of his hand.
He shouldn’t have, really. He should have kept an eye on him the whole time and not looked away once.
Because when he finally caught sight of him again, Tup had a blaster pointed at General Tiplar’s forehead.
