Tech Week Day 4
[AO3]
Day 3
I’ve had the most time to think this one over and I’m a little worried about it because of that, but I’m happy with the end result so I hope y’all are too! This also kind of follows up on the ideas I posited yesterday.
Echo flinched as Tech removed his leg from it’s socket.
After having joined the Bad Batch check ups had become quite frequent and though he tried to avoid them Tech always eventually got him to agree to them.
“You don’t have to pull it out so quickly you know.” Echo grumbled, his nails dug into the palm of his one good hand.
“Would you rather I take my time and draw out the pain?”
Echo rolled his eyes as Tech turned around, beginning the cleaning process.
“When do you think we’ll be able to head back home?” Echo asked, attempting to start an idle conversation rather than letting it slip into an awkward silence.
Tech appeared to stop for a brief moment before continuing his task “We’ll return to your home after the next mission, unless something comes up.”
“I think you mean our home.” he corrected, his tone being jovial but he caught Tech stopping once again.
“I do mean your home,” Tech paused, confusing Echo as to why. He usually was faster than this when it came to conversations. “The Marauder is our home,” and then he saw why he’d paused.
Of course it hadn’t been long since he’d joined Clone Force 99 but he had a tendency to forget for a second that he was different from them. That they’d been together since the beginning while he was only a new addition. He’d been feeling more and more at home with them, and he thought the feeling was mutual. But clearly there were still subjects that showed him that he was, indeed, an outsider looking in.
Before he could say anything Tech went on, “You were a Reg once, we obviously had different experiences. You never had to deal with the lunch hall all staring at you, like, by existing, you’d personally insulted each of them. You didn’t have to deal with always being viewed as lesser just because your appearance was different. You may deal with it now, but you didn’t have to grow up with it. You didn’t have to train in that environment. You didn’t have to prove each one of them wrong by succeeding anyways. You were a Reg, we weren’t.”
His tone was tactile and certain in what he was saying, but Echo could pick up on the pain that Tech clearly felt in stating it.
So Echo couldn’t be offended by it.
He had been a Reg, and maybe if he’d met the batch sooner he would have acted just like every other Reg had acted towards them. With mistrust and disdain.
“I might have been a Reg, but my squad wasn’t exactly top tier. A lot of our vods looked down on us since we could barely make it through the easiest trials.”
Tech hadn’t ever heard Echo bring up his old squad like this. Only in passing had he overheard Echo ask Captain Rex what had happened to “Fives”, but he’d never brought them up directly to any member of the Bad Batch.
So Tech decided to indulge Echo, see if he could get a better idea of what he meant. “What was your squad called?”
“Domino squad, we were certainly a work of art. Fives, Hevy, Droidbait, Cutup, and I didn’t really get along. Our trainers hated us for it too, took us till the last minute to pass and be able to be approved for combat.” “I remember hearing about your squad, your turn around time after that inconvenience in your final exam was incredible. I studied it in the hopes that maybe we could apply it to some of our own tactics.”
Echo laughed, the idea of Tech trying to decipher the crazed tactics the squad had come up with just to get to the field was amazing.
“Glad we could be of some use!” Echo chuckled, the way he said it though Tech could tell he was thinking about how little use his squad had ended up being.
“I’m sure they were all great vods to have,” he attempted to comfort Echo but didn’t think he could do much.
“They were, sometimes when I wake up I still think one of them made it out too though. Like Fives or even Hevy, for a brief moment I’ll think they’re sleeping right above me and then…they aren’t.”
Tech finished the cleaning and turned back around to put the leg back in place. “Well, we can’t replace them but you do still have a place in our home. Perhaps you can even start to call it your home as well.”
Echo’s face was one of thoughtful melancholy as he remembered his fallen aliit, when Tech said that he had a place in the batch he smiled softly at him. “I’d like that a lot.”
“Good, because you're stuck with us for the long haul.” Tech said succinctly as the leg locked back into place.
“Don’t worry, I won’t go anywhere!” Echo assured, “I’ll be here for the long haul.”
As Tech helped Echo get to his hammock the two soldiers walked away from the conversation Echo was left with the feeling that he was finally a part of the Batch, and Tech walked away better understanding their new aliit member.